The long road to economic self-reliance

Africa's biggest handicap is a lack of money and the ability to obtain financing, an area in which China, with the world's biggest foreign exchange reserves and some of the highest-priced capital markets, could help.

Many Chinese financial institutions rank among the world's largest. The country has provided many African countries with substantial help or concessionary loans for infrastructure projects.

Africa's replacement of China as the world's factory will not only help it emerge from poverty and put it on the road to prosperity, but will also help resolve several serious problems in China-Africa economic and trade relations.

Among these are China's long enduring trade surpluses with most African countries, its often criticized investment in Africa's resources and its exports of some low-end products that have been detrimental to some manufacturing in Africa.

Of course Africa faces many challenges. The investment environment is not particularly stable, industrial support is relatively poor and there is a severe shortage of management talent. The good news is that African countries are aware of these problems and have started to devote more time and effort to solving them.

The author is a researcher at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.