President Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of Africa’s young people to Sino-African ties
Africa’s young people hold the key to the continent’s future and, with the support of governments, should play a more active role in shaping the continent’s ties with China, experts and officials say.
Adhere Cavince, an expert on China-Africa relations at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology near Nairobi, says young people embody the future of China-Africa relations.
“It is through tapping the energy, creativity and talent of the young people that meaningful and sustainable economic development can be realized in Africa,” he says.
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Kenya’s Vice-President William Ruto (3rd from right), together with other invited guests, takes a photo with the winners of AVIC International’s Africa Tech Challenge. Liu Hongjie / China Daily |
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African students attend an emboidary course in Xinyu College in Jiangxi province. Song Zhenping / Xinhua |
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Local employees check tiles in a Chinese ceramic tile factory in Kenya. Sun Ruibo / Xinhua |
Cavince says China’s great surge in economic growth was to a large extent aided by targeted investments in young people, equipping them with skills, competence and proper attitudes.
“That is how the Asian economic giant became the global center of manufacturing,” he says.
Adam Lane, the senior director for public affairs at Huawei Southern Africa, says young people represent the present as well as the future of Africa. Since they constitute the continent’s largest demographic, it’s crucial that they have the skills, knowledge, passion and resources to develop themselves, their countries and the continent itself, he says.
“For Sino-African relations, it is important that the youth are able to broaden their understanding of each other, learn from each other, and collaborate with each other for trade, cultural understanding, economic development and social development,” Lane says.
Cavince says that as China and other countries turn to Africa for economic partnerships, the continent should empower young people with skills that are commensurate with the demands of a knowledge-based economy.
President Xi Jinping has emphasized the importance of Africa’s young people to Sino-African ties. In his speech during the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation’s Beijing Summit on Sept 3, he said young people are the key to the future of China-Africa ties.
He said the measures contained in the eight initiatives that China launched for building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future were designed to help young people in Africa.
“These measures will provide young Africans with more training and job opportunities and open up more space for their development,” he said.
According to African Development Bank Group, young people are Africa’s greatest asset. The continent’s youth population is rapidly growing and expected to double to over 830 million by 2050, ADB said. If properly harnessed, this increase in the working-age population could support increased productivity and stronger, more inclusive economic growth across the continent, it said.
However, the majority of young people in Africa do not have stable economic opportunities. Of Africa’s nearly 420 million people between the ages of 15 and 35, one-third are unemployed and discouraged and another one-third are vulnerably employed, according to an ADB report titled Catalyzing Youth Opportunity Across Africa.
Young people face roughly double the unemployment rate of adults, with significant variation by country. The problem is not just unemployment but underemployment, which peaks at just over half of young people in the labor force in low-income countries.
Chinese enterprises, meanwhile, are helping to solve unemployment through increasing investment in the continent. According to international consultancy McKinsey & Co, Chinese enterprises have provided more than 300,000 jobs to African workers.
In addition, nearly two-thirds of Chinese employers provide some type of skills training. Among companies engaged in construction and manufacturing, where skilled labor is necessary, half offer apprenticeship training, McKinsey said.
For better socioeconomic integration, Cavince, the scholar in Kenya, says there is a need to promote cultural understanding among young Africans and Chinese.
“Given their amenability and openness to new ideas, creating frameworks for dialogue among young people is an important consideration that should be emphasized,” he says.
Young Africans can increase their competitiveness by tapping into the revolutionary technologies that China is pioneering in diverse fields, Cavince says.
He says initiatives like the Sino-Africa Joint Research Centre at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology will significantly increase the integration of China and Africa through a fusion of skills and cultures.
The research center has organized workshops to share ideas on how to improve livelihoods through science and technology. This has in turn given rise to other collaborative projects in various fields of science, such as horticulture and biotechnology research activities.
One such development was a SAJOREC seminar at the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in October 2013. The workshop brought together participants from Kenya and other African countries, as well as Chinese officials and scientists.
Previous training sessions have benefited university lecturers and laboratory technicians drawn from leading universities in Africa, who have been trained in molecular laboratory techniques at Wuhan University and the Wuhan Botanical Garden.
Walter Ruigu, the managing director of Camal Group Ltd, a Beijing-based company that focuses on procurement, commodity trading and investment advice, says technology is one area in which young people can play an active role in Sino-African economic and social development.
Ruigu says this is practical because China is not only becoming one of the leading technology countries in the world, but some of its cities – specifically Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province – are becoming information technology hubs.
“Most of the IT companies in Shenzhen and Hangzhou are controlled by very young people. Hence, this can be a good area for cooperation,” he says.
Ruigu says Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, has launched funds to help African entrepreneurs, especially young ones focusing on e-commerce and IT.
In August, Ma launched a 1 billion Kenyan shilling ($9.8 million; 8.5 million euros; ￡7.6 million) African entrepreneur funding program, which targets innovators producing digital solutions that address challenges and strengthen the continent’s digital economy. The fund will benefit 100 African entrepreneurs.
Ma picked Kenyan startup incubator Nailab to run the program. Nailab is working closely with the Jack Ma Foundation and other innovation hubs in rolling out the Netpreneur Prize across the continent. The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative is designed to recognize and support young African entrepreneurs.
The Jack Ma foundation seeks to select 10 young leading “netpreneurs” annually who will share a prize pool of $1 million, according to their individual achievements.
The program seeks to support and fund African entrepreneurs who are working to tackle Africa’s challenges and further its digital economy.
“Young people are more likely to adjust to different cultures, so this is one of the big opportunities,” Ruigu says.
The most important negotiations between China and Africa are conducted by the older generations, denying young people the opportunity to participate, he adds.
“This may not change anytime soon, so the best the young people can do is to leverage technology, because right now we don’t need anyone to approve direct communication with China,” Ruigu says. “We don’t need anybody to approve learning more about Africa, or travel between the two areas. So we should not wait for anyone to help us. Instead, we should take advantage by ourselves.”
Ruigu says he appreciates that the Chinese government has given a lot of scholarships to help African students study in China and understand more about technology and how China operates.
However, he challenges African countries to organize similar programs to assist students in studying abroad so they can return to their countries and implement what they have learned.
He adds that China should not only be assisting African students to study in China, but should also assist young Chinese to come to Africa and understand more about the continent.
Young people are more likely to understand different cultures and learn new languages, Ruigu says. “This is where the youth can take a lot of advantage, both in China and Africa, by localizing, whether it’s a Chinese company in Africa or an African company in China.”
Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the Rwandan minister of trade and industry, says young people are the most important component of the African population, and many are learning Mandarin and taking advantage of e-commerce.
“The youth in Africa are connected like anyone in the world and have a role to play in scaling up their businesses and coming up with ideas, and also having a chance to use a distribution network that already exists and that has proved successful,” she says.
Hakuziyaremye says young Africans should take advantage of what is being done by the governments of China and Africa and be part of that opportunity.
“Young people can take risks more than older people. That’s why a youth-to-youth relationship is very important. It’s great to have Chinese companies like Alibaba Group that are giving a chance to young people in Africa to use technology and have their products known in the biggest market,” she says.
Leslie Fick, the director of special programs investment for South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry, says it is young people who will sustain the economy.
“There are many youths pursuing education in China, which is a clear demonstration of the commitment of the Chinese government at all levels, not only economically, but also to improve the skills and education of the inhabitants, particularly African youth,” he says.
During this year’s FOCAC summit in Beijing, China pledged to provide Africa with 50,000 government scholarships and 50,000 training opportunities for seminars and workshops, and said it will invite 2,000 young Africans to visit China for exchanges.
President Xi also announced that China will set up 10 Luban Workshops in Africa to provide vocational training for young Africans. The Luban Workshops program – named after the father of Chinese architecture – is designed to offer technical and vocational training, promote modern vocational reforms, and enhance collaboration among vocational schools worldwide.
China will also support the opening of a China-Africa innovation cooperation center to promote youth innovation and entrepreneurship. A tailor-made program will be carried out to train 1,000 Africans.
Chinese companies operating in Africa, including Huawei, AVIC International and China Road and Bridge Corp, have provided technology transfer opportunities to African students as well as scholarships to study in China.
Ruigu, of Camal Group Ltd, advises young Africans to take advantage of the opportunities that China is presenting.
“Don’t wait for anybody, because if you wait on others to bring the opportunities, it will be too late,” he says.
“The most important thing is to understand that the China opportunity is huge, and you should not wait for anybody to tell you how to take advantage, because right now information is available freely on the internet.”
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Amina Mohammed, the cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, takes a photo with a student who won job opportunities at AVIC International during the ATC Season Four Award Ceremony. Liu Hongjie / China Daily |
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Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, gives a lecture to students at the University of Nairobi in July 2017. Chen Cheng / Xinhua |
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Li Qiang (left), the managing director of China Road and Bridge Corporation, exchanges a signed scholarship agreement with Josephine Masibo (right), human resources and administration manager of Kenya Railways, with a student representative in the center. James Macharia, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Liu Xianfa, China’s former ambassador to Kenya, stand at the back. Liu Hongjie / China Daily |
( China Daily European Weekly 11/23/2018 page1)