Germany in Africa

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Description

This is the first book on German-African economic relations published in Russia in the last 25 years. It covers a whole spectrum of Germany's bi-lateral and multilateral relations with the countries of Africa, including commercial ties, money transfers, direct and portfolio investment, movement of labor resources, etc. Special attention is given to the legal framework and political context of German-African cooperation. Germany's role in implementing EU joint policy in Africa is analyzed in detail for the first time in the Russian economic literature. The book will be of interest to scholars, university students as well as business people, interested in the contemporary economic, political and social development of Africa.

Informations

• Publié par: MeaBooks Inc
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780994032515
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN STUDIES

IRINA ABRAMOVA, CURT STOLL, KONSTANTIN TKACHENKO

GERMANY IN AFRICA: RECONCILING BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT

GERMANY’S TRADE AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH AFRICAN COUNTRIES th st AT THE END OF THE 20–CENTURYBEGINNING OF THE 21

Edited by Prof. Dr. Leonid L. Fituni

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Recommended for publication by the Scientific Council of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Reviewed by Prof. Dr. Victor V. Drozdov, Full Professor, Economic Faculty, Moscow State University

Dr. Valery P. Morozov, Associate Professor, Chair World Economy, Plekhanov Economic Academy, Moscow

I. Abramova, C. Stoll, K. Tkachenko. Germany in Africa: Rec- onciling Business and Development. Germany’s Trade and Eco- th nomic Relations with African Countries at the end of the 20 – st beginning of 21 century.(Edited by L. Fituni).

This is the first book on German-African economic relations published in Russia in the last 25 years. It covers a whole spectrum of Germany’s bi-lateral and multilateral relations with the countries of Africa, including commercial ties, money transfers, direct and portfolio investment, movement of labor resources, etc. Special attention is given to the legal framework and political context of German-African cooperation. Germany’s role in implementing EU joint policy in Africa is analyzed in detail for the first time in the Russian economic literature. The book will be of interest to scholars, university stu- dents as well as business people, interested in the contemporary economic, political and social development of Africa.

ISBN

© Institute for African Studies RAS, 2009 © Irina Abramova, 2009 © Curt Stoll, 2009 © Konstantin Tkachenko, 2009 © Leonid Fituni, 2009 (editor) © Gulzhamal Abisheva, 2009 (book design) ‹ 0($%22.6 ,QF 

CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………… Chapter 1. DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS OF GERMANY’S ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH AFRICA……………………………........................ 1.1. Fundamental principles of Germany’s economic cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa within the context of common European policies……….........… 1.2. Political context and regulatory framework of Germany's commercial and economic relations with the African states of the Mediterranean………...….. 1.3. Institutional basis of cooperation and human capital formation in Africa………………………………. Chapter 2. NEW TRENDS IN THE MOVEMENT OF GOODS AND LABOR BETWEEN AFRICA AND GERMANY…………………….................................. 2.1. Business relations: from raw materials to modern technologies………...…………………………………... 2.2. Export of labor resources from Africa to Germany

Chapter 3. FINANCIAL FLOWS BETWEEN GERMANY AND AFRICA……………………………….

3.1. New trends in German official development assistance to Africa ............................................................

3.2. Direct investments ………..........................................

3.3. Policies of German banks in Africa .…………….….

Conclusion…………………………………………………..

Bibliography……………………………………………...…

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INTRODUCTION

Analysis of the complex and multi-valued processes occurring in the system of world economic relations at the end of the 20th century is of great theoretical and practical interest to Russia. Economic rela- tions between the leading industrially developed countries of the West and developing states represent one of the important sectors of this system. The experience of Germany, one of the most economically influential powers of the world, are of particular interest in this con- text. An exploration of its experience of economic interaction with the less-developed regions of the world appears to be topical and useful. Nevertheless, research of these processes as applied to Africa has been remarkably scarce in the last decades. A notable increase of West-German business interest in Africa emerged already after World War II. The “German economic miracle” stimulated West-German businessmen into exploring new markets. Africa in this regard appeared to be a sufficiently attractive and prom- ising object of economic expansion. It was more or less during the same historical period that the ma- jority of African countries had freed themselves from colonial oppres- sion and started to search for ways to diversify their foreign economic relations, paying special attention to those countries which had not previously been involved in the colonial partition of the continent – e.g. Germany, the USA, the USSR. Opportunities for German compa- nies improved still more after a large number of countries of the con-

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tinent had signed conventions on preferential treatment with the Common market (during that period, the “associated membership” was concerned), a prototype of the Yaoundé and, later, Lomé conven- tions. Now these countries form the ACP association under the Coto- nou Agreement. The “golden” period of African-German relations lasted almost to the end of the 1980s. Following the German reunification, as a conse- quence of intensification of the Maastricht process, and expansion of the European Union (EU) the significance of the African continent in the system of Germany’s external economic priorities has somewhat decreased. The African markets, however, still remain an essential object of economic expansion. A turn of Germany’s interests towards Africa has in a sense be- come a precondition for a new qualitative, still unstudied change. The former system of relations between Africa and Germany still pre- served many features of Cold War relations. Thus the features which had been typical for the post-war period, continued to dominate in the economic dialogue between Germany and Africa even after the Cold War reached its end. Once free market economics had actively spread in the world economy at the end of 1980s and 1990s, this system could not exist any longer. A sharp deterioration of the economic climate in the African re- gion as well as the lingering economic recession in Germany after its reunification, added to the amplification of globalization processes, accompanied by the spread of neoconservative principles in the world, have exerted a decisive influence over the formation of new tendencies in the system of German-African relations. A relative as well as absolute reduction of value amounts of German-African trade, and of the inflow of German capital to the region’s countries in the 1990s arose from the slackening of the old type links. Such is one of the main manifestations of qualitative changes in the system of Germany’s foreign economic relations with the developing coun- tries of Africa. The fact that duringthe recentyears the theme raised bythe au- thors of the monograph has not been actively treated in the scientific

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economic literature confers an additional urgencyto the work. While theproblems of German-African relations duringthepost-warperiod and in the 1970–1980s were rather widelycovered in various works of Soviet and foreign scientists, the interest in theseproblems faded con- siderablythroughout the world over the followingyears. Hardlymore than ten rather short articles on this subject, mostlyin the nature of references, have appeared in Russia throughout the entireperiod. Largelyit is due to the fact that research has focused more on Africa itself and on the difficulties and opportunities contained in the inde- pendent African economy. Furthermore, West-European scientists have been increasingly preoccupied with theproblems of the developed countries and of the would-be EU entrants. Inparticular, in Germanythe issues of the country’s internal economic development, adaptation of the domestic economyto the challenges ofglobalization, European integration, and extension of the FRG influence on the countries of Eastern and Cen- tral Europe, etc. have captured increased attention. Those German scientists, who nevertheless continue to research theproblems of the developingcountries, are inclined to consider the elaboration ofgeneralpatterns of development of the Third World Countries altogether as aprioritydirection of scientific research, whereas research on Africa itselfplays a relativelysmall role. While Africa is the most backward region, the experience of its development has not been appraised as adequatelyrepresentative with relation to the mechanism of development of the Third World Countries. Sub- jects concerningthe issues of democratization,peacemaking,proper management, combatingcorruption as well as traditional anthropo- logical and ethnographic research of Africaprevail amongresearch done byGerman analysts. As for Russian(Soviet)research, the relations between the devel- oped capitalist and the developingcountries have been for a longtime considered through aprism of unilateral ideological directives. The predominance of negative evaluations of the German-African eco- nomic ties(see, e.g., works byJ.Etinger, M.Ochkov, S.Kozitsky), ex- clusively seeking out the exploiter essence frequently prevented one

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from seeingthe actual development of economicprocesses in their true state. The changes which occurred in the Russian societyin the late 1980s, have resulted in the appearance of the opportunityand ne- cessityto applya deideologized approach to research for tendencies and mechanisms of functioningof the world economyintegrallyas well as concerningseparate regions and states. Research of the system of German-African economic interrelations is ofpractical significance not onlyto the German business, but also to Russia. Enteringthe African markets, especiallyof the member states of the ACP, Russian external economic agencies and companies inevitablycome into contact with the interests and spheres of influ- ence of German firms. The knowledge of concrete mechanisms, cus- toms, and standards of activityof German companies in Africa can foster the amplification of activityof the Russian business in the re- gion, and thereafter,possibly, lead to itspartnershipand cooperation with German capital. The object of research for the monograph is theparticularities of Germany’s foreign economic relations with the developingcountries st of Africa in the 1990s and the beginningcenturof the 21 y. Thus, the main focus is the analysis of new tendencies in such spheres as trade, export ofprivate and state capital, and aid for development. The objective of research consists in the complex economic analy- sis of the changes which have occurred in scales, structure, directions, and forms of Germany’s foreign economic relations with the develop- ingcountries of Africa duringthe above-mentionedperiod, as well as in revealingprobableprospects of development of such relations in the near future. A series of specific tasks has been set in order to accomplish the objective of the monograph, namely: 1. to reveal to what extent the relative decrease of Germany’s in- terest in Africa has affected its economic stand in the region; 2. to analyze the reasons of the shift of accents of Germany’s in- terest in the sources of raw material and markets in Africa, which have entailed changes in the value and commoditystructure of the German- African trade;

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