Africa, the Arabian Gulf and Asia: Changing Dynamics in Contemporary West Africa's Political Economy

Emmanuel Akyeampong

doi:10.5325/jafrideve.13.1-2.0085

Abstract

AbstractThe last two to three decades have witnessed significant transformation in West Africa's relations to the Arabian Gulf and Asia. While ties to countries such as Saudi Arabia are historic, economic liberalization since the 1980s has introduced new trading partners and some unexpected developments. The outcome of these recent developments can be startling: so in Ghana, for example, India and China have overtaken the United Kingdom, the former colonial power, in investments and the number of operating companies. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ranks third in the cumulative value of foreign direct investments in Ghana since 1994. This paper is an historian's attempt to provide context, some perspective and to probe the implications of these emerging patterns for the political economy of West Africa. It uses Ghana under the Kufuor regime (2000-2008) as a case study of how one West African government engaged the new economic opportunities and the growing importance of Arab and Asian trading partners and investors in the climate of South-South cooperation.

Highlights

This paper examines the place of Asia and the Arabian Gulf in the changing political economy of contemporary West Africa
Though situated in the historical context of post-colonial Africa, the focus is on the last decade, a decade where relatively new economic players such as China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become economically significant as investors and trading partners for West Africa
We think that there is a big opportunity to build a genuinely African communications system, so we are focusing on establishing cross-border links, which is why we offer subscribers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania discount rates from normal international tariffs

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In the conclusion I offer some reflections on Kufuor’s trade and investment strategy Though his presidency witnessed high growth rates with real GDP growth averaging 6.2 per cent between 2005 and 2007 and a World Bank report in 2008 ranked Ghana the best place for business in West. The capitalist drive that had facilitated the internationalization of production and the concomitant skills and technology transfer with outsourcing in the 1980s would promote new sites of capitalist accumulation in places such as China, India and Malaysia This is not to dismiss the active role states played in these countries in planning, financing, attracting investment and charting economic growth, though it is important to emphasize the conjuncture of factors that would accelerate economic growth in Asian countries such as China and India (Santos-Paulino and Wan, 2010). This is a reflection of India’s investment in human resource development and government policies that have targeted productivity

CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ECONOMY

British Virgin

Findings

CONCLUSION