Business
Africans investing billions of dollars in China
By Bo Li
Many people are not aware that the relationship between Africa and China is not just a one-way street.
Beyond the small businesses that attract Africans in Guangzhou—the so-called ‘Chocolate city’ in China because of the large number of Africans who live there, African companies have made considerable investments in China.
China, the world’s newest economic superpower, surpassed the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009. Since then, China’s investments in Africa have been growing at a staggering speed.
However, many people are not aware that the Sino-Africa relationship is not just a one-way street. By 2012, Africans had invested a cumulative US$14.2 billion in China, a 43 percent increase from the US$9.9 billion invested by 2009.
In 2012 alone, the amount of direct investments from Africa to China was about US$1.4 billion, mostly in petro-chemical, manufacturing, wholesale and retailing industries.
Some of the top African investors in China came from Mauritius, South Africa, Seychelles and Nigeria, according to the White Paper on Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Africa published by the Chinese government.
Investing in local brands
For example, not many people outside China have heard about Snow beer, the world’s best-selling beer by sales volume, because it is produced and sold only in China.
Even fewer are aware that an African company, the South African Breweries (SABMiller), runs Snow beer as a joint venture with a Chinese firm and produces many other popular Chinese beer brands as well.
SABMiller (formerly SAB before it acquired the Miller Brewing Company in 2002) began its expansion into China in the mid-1990s.
