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How China is Facilitating Africa’s “Structural Transformation”

by Eric Olander
Source: Aiddata.com, Version 2.0 accessed on October 7, 2021. Note: Composition of the 3,126 completed and “recommended for aggregates” projects in Africa financed or co-financed by China 2000-2017, by sector. The health sector accounted for 24 percent of the total project count. But by amount of finance, energy and transport were the two largest subsectors, as these projects are large in size and long term.

For much of the past 20 years, China has been the indispensable actor in African infrastructure development, financing the construction of thousands of kilometers of new railways and roads along with ports, airports, and power stations.

But has it been enough to help some African countries transition from relying primarily on resource extraction to developing a manufacturing sector and eventually building a services sector in their economies?

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