Africa stands to gain from China's economic transition

NAIROBI -- Africa's agricultural sector stands to gain more from China's deepening economic diversification through greater demand for produce to propel its rapid industrialization, experts say.

"China's economic transition will be a plus for the whole world as it will make China a large importer of goods and services from the rest of the world," said Munene Macharia, an international relations expert at United States International University, based here.

While China strived for a more efficient, balanced and sustainable economic growth and industrialization model, the rest of the world would do well to prepare to reap from China's gains, the professor told Xinhua in an interview.

"Africa can also position itself to become the world's factory once China moves to value addition and inventions," he said.

China, long accused of lacking the industrial muscle to produce high quality industrial goods and services, has diversified its economy to focus on new growth frontiers, especially on domestic and new international markets.

Moreover, Beijing is also focusing on environmental conservation, through a strategic focus on the green economic model.

Macharia said Africa was a key point of focus for China at a time when Europe and the United States, its biggest consumers and trade partners, were facing economic crises.

"The Chinese government should pay close attention to the green economy because it holds the greatest promise," he said.

"This is the right time for China to change to a green economy because it is still a developing country," Munene said, "The clean up costs are less compared to those mature and already industrialized countries in the West."

"Goods and services from the green economy would easily find a market both domestically and internationally," he said.

The green economic growth model de-emphasizes huge investments in fossil fuels and nuclear energy in favor of more sustainable sources of power, including solar, wind power and geothermal resources to power industrial production.

"Transition to a green economy has huge initial costs but the returns are tremendous," the expert said.

Munene warned that, while the resolve to move China to a new economic growth model was gaining ground, dealing with weak global demand for goods and services as a result of the eurozone debt crisis also created strains.

China faced an uphill task moving its production platforms to focus on invention, research and innovation, a factor that would then allow it to usher in new frontiers of production, he said.

A smooth transition for China was to move completely from being the factory for inventions to being the originator, which would in turn help Beijing to earn new revenue sources, the expert said.