The Chinese Angola-mode in Africa : the case study of Angola and Sudan

Abstract

Over the last decade and the rise of the PRC, the Sino-African relations evolved from political to economic. As the Chinese economic interests in Africa strongly developed, this paper explains how China managed to become a preeminent development partner in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the repercussions of this enclosed cooperation. Hence, it examines the Chinese strategy to gain entry into these countries and the repercussions it had on different layers of the local economies. The findings show that China heavily invested and granted large loans with advantageous repayment conditions paired with minimal obligations for money delivery. As a result, China had access to natural resources in exchange for financing and operating infrastructure development. The immediate effect for African nations has been the explosion of capital accumulation gathered through international market. These enhanced capital increase had repercussions on the nations’ immediate economic growth; Angola having been the world’s fastest developing country over the first decade of the years 2000’s. However, to be competitive against the IMF’s development program, the lowly conditioned Angola Mode found a break in the output diversification and the non-systematic economic development. As such, it appears that the Angola Model’s blueprint and its non-interference in local administration is a formidable opportunity to gather capital and develop communication systems for a nation committed to growth and development but it would rather appear as meaningless in case of funds misallocation. Following these highlighted pros and cons, this dissertation is concluded with a set of policy recommendations oriented for both African nations’ long term development and the improvement of the current Angola Model to achieve a greater efficiency.