‘Set high standard for Chinese goods’
An Assistant Professor at the Zhejiang Normal University in China, Professor Xioafeng Zhang, has called on African governments to set higher standards for their markets to attract high quality products from China.
He said China, like any other country, produced a wide range of products at various grades but most African countries were, in most cases, at the receiving end because of the standards set by their governments.
"Every country produces low quality goods but it is because some of the governments from Africa have set low standards for products imported into their countries, that is why such products are shipped into those countries," he stated.
Responding to a question on why China continued to dump shoddy goods onto the African markets during a three-week seminar for 28 professionals from 10 African countries at the Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua, China, Professor Zhang further charged African governments to pay their people well in order to increase their purchasing power.
That, he said, was the only way the people would be empowered financially to be able to purchase high quality products.
Investments
He said China was ready to invest over $10 billion into the African economy but it was up to African countries to reposition themselves strategically in order to attract the investments.
"China is ready to invest in areas of infrastructure such as high speed railway, electricity, household machinery, tourism, among others. Africa must readily make available labour personnel who are technologically skilled and also create the needed atmosphere that is conducive enough for businesses to thrive," he added.
African banks
Citing a transaction between the Chinese Development Bank and the African Development Bank to support his argument, Professor Zhang said after borrowing at a two per cent rate from the China Development Bank, the African Development Bank went ahead to give it out as a loan at an increased rate of 12 per cent.
Such practice by banks in Africa, he said, were not beneficial to small and medium-scale enterprises on the continent.
"Most African banks are monopolised, the rate of lending and borrowing is wide and the savings habit among the people is also very poor," he said, and emphasised the need for African countries to build the capabilities of its labour to be technologically innovative.