Chinese model of economy good for Africa

From these, he believed Beijing was able to craft a market economy with Chinese characteristics.

Moreover, Amoah believed that the Chinese leadership type was also well suited for China's development agenda, as it ensured smooth transition from one leader to the other in a communist system termed socialism with Chinese characteristics.

He held that the wind of democracy blowing across Africa was gradually dealing with the leadership and succession crisis that had embroiled the continent in past decades.

"This is critical and so robust and responds to the leadership gap,"  he said.

Frankline Cudjoe, executive director of the local think-tank Imani Ghana, said one of the things helping China was the fact that they did due diligence.

"This is one thing that Africa and Ghana must emulate. They pay particular attention to every detail of information available on whatever they are doing," he said.

Cudjoe said discipline was another factor in China's development history, adding that they persisted in what they were doing until they got the required results.

The ability of China to open up to encourage cross-border trading, Cudjoe said, was another factor that precipitated its development.

Magnus Ebo Duncan, head of economic statistics at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), attributed China's development to political stability and boldness.

"China's development is attributable to political decisions," Duncan said. "They have been following one development agenda over the years with no disruption, and their political system enables them to take decisions which do not affect voting patterns."

"Ghanaian democratic practice has the ruling government take a decision that is good as a long-term measure, but would have some short-term unpalatable effects on the people," he said.

Duncan lamented that opponents of ruling governments capitalized on short-term difficulties to campaign against the ruling parties in order to get them voted out of power.

"That is the problem of Africa. We do not have one national development agenda. Manifestos of the different political parties are geared toward the same goal by different approaches, and strong sentiments are expressed on each side of the political divide," he said.

Duncan called for a development blueprint for Ghana and urged politicians not to shy away from difficult economic decisions, no matter how unpalatable they might be in the short-term.