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Chinese investments to boost Africa's manufacturing capacity: expert

Xinhua, March 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chinese investments will boost manufacturing capacity in Africa, an economic analyst said Thursday in Nairobi.

"There are opportunities for certain manufacturing capacity to shift to Africa," Jeremy Stevens, Economist with the Standard Advisory (China) Limited, told Xinhua in an interview during a forum on the China-Africa Economic Cooperation convened by the CFC-Stanbic Bank.

Stevens said while the macro-economic data available shows the Chinese economy would continue to slow down below the current 6.4 percent, Chinese firms were still likely to continue shaping the investment climate, especially in the infrastructure sector, where they have helped modernize Africa.

Foreign companies, including those based in China, usually move abroad to seek better economic prospects and new markets as a means of generating new centers of economic growth, according to the economist.

"The slowdown in China suits Africa's needs because there would be more Chinese firms willing to invest outside China in order to generate economic growth and create an investment climate that would suit their long-term economic growth potentials in future. Africa will benefit," Stevens told Xinhua.

Experts noted that China-built projects in Africa, such as the 38 million dollar Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, have boosted local economy, especially the manufacturing sector.

The forum was attended by dozens of Chinese investors, mostly corporate clients of the Standard Bank, to discuss ways of managing the economic challenges and the volatile debt markets in China.

CFC-Stanbic Bank executives said there was need for regular exchange of information on how to effectively help economic players in both China and Africa to manage the economic challenges likely to affect them.

In East Africa, economists say the economic indicators look impressive for investors in East Africa, especially in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Jibran Qureishi, CFC-Stanbic Bank's East African Regional Economist, said the Kenyan government needs to consolidate its financial planning and slowdown the expansion of public debt so as to create an improved investment climate. Enditem