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In Crafting Special Economic Zones, Ethiopia and Vietnam Learned from China and Taiwan

By Keyi Tang The Taliban administration recently announced plans to convert former US military bases into special economic zones (SEZs) with the aim of promoting economic self-sufficiency through increased trade and investment.  The Taliban are not ...

Can Shenzhen’s Special Economic Zone Miracle Offer Insights to Africa’s Economic Recovery?

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every country and its citizens, though it has not impacted them equally, particularly those in the African continent. Makhtar Sop Diop, a Senegalese economist, and politician who has been serving as the Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation since 2021 wrote ...

South Africa’s Limpopo Province Approves $10 Billion Chinese-Finance Coal Project… But There’s Just One Very Small Problem

South Africa's Limpopo Province gave the go-ahead last week for a $10 billion industrial project that includes a 4,600-megawatt coal power plant, a coking facility, and a steel plant. The approval is critical for the development of the controversial Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone. ...

China’s Ambassador to Uganda Wants to Show a Different Side of Chinese Labor Relations in Africa

China's recently-arrived ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong, travelled to the central city of Kapeeka on Sunday to visit factories in the Liaoshen Industrial Park in what appears to be an effort, in part, to convey an alternative narrative to the one that's become popular ...

A New Chinese-Built Road in Nigeria Highlights Why Infrastructure is So Important For Local People and, More Importantly, Politicians

Both truckers and workers are celebrating the opening of a new, modern road that leads to the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade zone in western Nigeria. The recently opened road has dramatically improved transport times for cargo and made it much easier for thousands of workers to get to ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Chinese Foreign Minister to Lead UN Security Council Meeting on Gaza

Wang Yi, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, will chair a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting in New York on the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
China, the current UNSC president, called the meeting scheduled for November 29. It comes as the two sides are looking into extending the temporary ceasefire that started last week to allow for the return of further Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees.

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Rise of Special Economic Zones in Africa: Can Agricultural Processing Be the Next SEZ Success Story?

By Sophia Kladaki and Jing Cai, Research Analysts at Development Reimagined “There is no one model of development” is one of the key principles, we, the team at Development Reimagined, try to champion when looking at key issues of economic growth ...

Reports of Arson Attacks Against Chinese Businesses in Nigeria and Arrest of Archbishop Protesting Treatment of Africans in Guangzhou Highlights Growing Tensions

Videos are spreading rapidly on Nigerian social media, purportedly showing hundreds of young men burning down Chinese-owned businesses and factories in the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone outside of Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Although these videos were shot last week and posted ...

China Creates $5 Billion Export Fund with Bank in Morocco

China's Exim Bank announced plans to team up with Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank to create a $5 billion fund to promote African exports to China and to establish new industrial zones on the continent, according to a report published by Reuters. The ...

China's Special Economic Zones in Africa: Lots of Hype, Little Hope

A decade ago China announced it would develop a series of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa to boost trade and industrialization. Given the phenomenal success of China's SEZs that helped to spark the PRC's three-decades of history-making economic growth, not ...