Tencent and Alibaba Explain Why Africa Needs Integration
There is no argument that African Union should work hard to integrate the disparate (largely small) African economies. There is great benefit in economic integration even with loose political integration. What is happening in China tells everyone that scale matters: one can build a solid company with scale in Africa if we become a single market.
Alibaba does 89% of its business within China and Tencent does 95%. Yet both are valued at near a half trillion dollars, and both have developed areas of excellence where they surpass their U.S. colleagues—Alibaba in e-commerce and online finance, Tencent in chat and gaming. Perhaps more importantly, both have become huge engines of capital for Chinese tech startups. The two have completed more than 450 acquisitions and venture investments in the last three years. (Fortune Newsletter)
Africa needs integration, urgently. Yes, I understand that we also need to improve purchasing of the citizens. But integration could also unlock that.
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The Road to China is certainly important for Africa as I have noted.
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Africa has a similar population figure like China ,but keep looking to China for help. It does appear that numbers don't matter when Africa is discussed, because it's hard to place a finger on why the continent cannot get anything done at scale.
Ofcourse there are divergent views when it comes to Vision for Africa, and with pockets of distrust here and there, added to cultural issues; the continent doesn't seem to have a unified goal when it comes to economic development.
Each country is speaking to China or Europe, at the end, we create silos and flashes of progress and nothing more.
Purchasing power would increase when you have a massive and advanced economic activities within the continent, the turnaround in fortunes cannot happen in a vacuum.