With a third of the world’s population, China’s economic success is nothing short of a miracle.
China’s remarkable growth in it’s economy thereby becoming the de facto manufacturing hub of the world has lifted over five hundred million people out of poverty, creating the world’s largest middle-class in the process.
President Akufo-Addo acknowledged this on Tuesday at a roundtable meeting of Presidents and Heads of State at the 3rd Summit of the Forum on China Africa Co-operation (FOCAC). Ghana’s president praised Chinese president, Xi Jinping, for his efforts in developing a strong economic model that the he (Ghana’s president) intends to implement in Ghana.
“[Ghana is] inspired by this model, and are trying to replicate the same, through inter alia, our industrialization policy of 1-District-1-Factory, and an increase in agricultural productivity through the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs.”
China’s GDP has risen exponentially within the last 50 years. The country’s GDP ballooned from $59 billion in 1960 to $11 trillion in 2016, according to stats from the World Bank.
The President wants to begin with the Belt and Road Initiative, an $8 trillion project that links routes of trade and cultural exchange throughout Asia, Africa and Europe. Commonly referred to as the Silk Road Economic Belt, it aims to bridge the gaps between the three continents and has since attracted attention from countries all over the world.
Akufo-Addo believes “the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, will further intensify Chinese commitment to Africa’s development.”
Ghana has realized that a partnership with China will help attain a stronger, more self-reliant global marketplace. China has a population of 1.3 billion people and this means a bilateral relationship that goes both ways will open a huge opportunity for Ghanaian businesses to get into the Chinese market.
One of the core challenges Africa has when it comes to economic development is the lack of capacity to process the continent’s raw materials into finished products. Ghana has started implementing this and according to Nana Akufo-Addo “… we want our relations with China to be characterised by an increase in trade and investment co-operation, and not by the export and import of raw materials,”.
H/T MyJoyOnline
