Africa quarterly special on emerging powers.pdf - SAFPI

P A R A D I G M S H I F TThepowersin the continentThe growing engagement of India and China in <strong>Africa</strong> has compelledwestern powers to shift their attention to a renascent continent,says Sanjukta Banerji BhattacharyaU.S. President Barack Obama addresses the Ghanaian parliament in Accra, Ghana, on July 11, 2009.<strong>Africa</strong>’s relations with India and Chinaas a whole have been the subject ofmuch discussion in the media andacademia in recent years because ofthe rather sudden and exponentialgrowth of trade and other relations ofthese two countries with the continentand the impact this has had on<strong>Africa</strong>n countries previously written off as ‘basket cases’.Today, they have emerged as significant economic actors withgrowth rates that, in many cases, have shown more promisethan that of western countries for the past few years. In fact,their terms of relationship have been very different from thatof western countries and have included infrastructuredevelopment, aid and lines of credit — instruments that haveacted as drivers of growth rather than agents of exploitation,and have helped draw <strong>Africa</strong>n states into the emergingmarkets of an increasingly globalised world.Today, several states of <strong>Africa</strong> are attractive destinations forforeign direct investment and trade, and many countries, inaddition to India and China, are vying for an entry or are-entry into the <strong>Africa</strong>n market and are offering terms andconditions similar to those offered by India and China. Theseinclude major powers like the United States, the EU as a bloc,and countries from regions that had so far had very littleinterest in the continent, that is, South East Asia and Latin28August 2011-January 2012