Asia's growth won't short change Africa...
The growth of countries like China and India will have a major impact on the world's economy in the coming years.
Attention has focused on how the UK, the US and the European Union will be affected, but little is known about the consequences for low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
At the Institute of Development Studies we are focusing on how Asia's growing economies will influence the trade and financial stability of Africa's developing countries. Is China's growth a threat to finding sustainable income or does it provide great opportunities? How will China face the challenges presented by the demands of developing countries?
Given the commitment to halve global poverty by 2015, finding the answers to these questions is particularly relevant. Our aim is for our research to enable policymakers to maximise opportunities and minimise the potential threats posed by Asian growth to low-income countries in Africa and Latin America.
Asian Drivers
The growth of China and India is the development story of our times. Their increasing involvement in the global economy is rapidly changing the rules of the game. Much attention has been focused on the potential impacts of the economic growth of China and India on the UK, the US and the European Union. But the complex consequences for low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have been less studied.
Asian Drivers is a research programme coordinated by IDS, focusing on the opportunities and challenges presented by newly dynamic Asian economies, especially large economies such as China and India, for the development prospects of low-income economies. For example, it is estimated that one third of Brazil's economic growth from 2000 to 2003 was accounted for by Chinese demand.
In the specific area of development policy and practice, China and India will be increasingly influential in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (through aid, trade, foreign direct investment and governance), through their leadership in East and South Asia, and the role they have to play in international negotiations about trade, global warming and financial stability.
One current research priority is to examine China and Africa. It is all too easy to see China as a behemoth, bursting onto the world stage with irresistible force. Our research is focusing on the new challenges posed to China itself by its sudden rise. Developing countries are making new demands of China, and its image as a friend of developing countries is under scrutiny, as illustrated by some of the difficulties faced by President Hu Jintao on his trip to Africa earlier this year.
Chinese trade with Africa is increasing rapidly. Africa, therefore, has the opportunity not only to respond to the new challenges posed by China, but also to shape China's adaptation to its new responsibilities. This means understanding and responding to the challenges that come not only from the central government in China, but also provincial governments and Chinese public- and private-sector firms. Bringing together the perspectives of African and Chinese scholars to understand these processes, the Asian Drivers programme aims to make a distinctive contribution to research in this area.
Find out more about research in the Institute of Development Studies.
