Mr. Alioune Gueye

Chairman and C.EO. of Afrique Challenge

The African continent lives a particular revival in these recent years, which promises a unique geographical reclassification. Yet for many experts, the marginalization of the continent seemed inevitable. This reclassification, the continent owes it first to external dynamics, including better remuneration of its resources and its raw materials, the emergence of new emerging countries on the international scene; relayed and amplified by internal changes previously unmatched. However, will Africa regain the place that it deserves or will it fall again into the throes of marginalization right after the lull of the prices of the raw-materials and oil? As we’re commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the independences in several countries, is Africa is on the right way for the next fifty years?

Introduction

Not so long ago, Africa was presented as the mainland of the curse and sadness. With less than 1 % of foreign direct investment (FDI), less than 1 % of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product), a significant demographic growth, endless conflicts, food crises and recurrent bad weather, the continent appeared on the fringes of globalization that we find it hard to glimpse ways of improvement for the future. Yet since the early 2000s, the trend seems reversed permanently. While the levels of FDI, GDP, and infrastructure are far from reaching those in Asia or Latin America, but their rate of progress is high and sustained is of a good expectation for the continent. In this upward trend are grafted internal dynamics caused by a promising new class of entrepreneurs, politicians, women, but also the African Diaspora, determined to take the continent's destiny in hand.

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China’s Diplomacy in Africa

Dr. He Wenping

(Professor, Director of African Studies Section of
Institute of West Asian & African Studies,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, CASS)

With the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, Africa lost its much-valued geopolitical status. As a result, the attention the West devotes to Africa has been constantly on the decline. The continent is being marginalized in the diplomatic strategies of major Western countries. However, China is as always committed to developing relations with Africa. While cementing their economic and trade ties that began to expand in the 1980s, China sees great value in fostering an across-the-board relationship with Africa by forging closer political, cultural and educational links.

FOCAC and China-Africa Summit: A New Milestone

There is no doubt that Africa is high on China’s diplomatic agenda in recent years. Along with the releasing the very first White Paper on China’s Africa Policy on January 2006, a number of high-level official visiting to Africa have been taken by President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other cabinet members and the members of the Political Bureau.
A new milestone in the history of China-Africa relations has been created when African leaders gather in Beijing with their Chinese counterparts for the First Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and its Third Ministerial Conference in early November 2006. In fact, the year 2006 marked the ‘Year of Africa’ in China’s diplomacy. Also in the same year, China became Africa’s third largest trading partner following the United States and France, making Africa one of China’s major overseas origins for strategic resources, investment opportunities and greater product markets.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, established in 2000, provides an institutionalized platform for enhancing bilateral exchanges and cooperation. Over the last four FOCAC meetings in 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009, China has offered a series of incentive measures to boost China-Africa ties, such as debt write-off to African countries, tariff-free for some African commodities exporting to China as well as establishing and increasing the Fund for African Human Resources Development, etc. At the opening ceremony of China-Africa Summit in early November 2006, President Hu Jintao announced China’s eight-point proposal supporting African development:

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“Brain drain” Vs “Brain gain”: Moroccan case study
Mohamed Boudoudou
Sociologist, Mohammed V University
Rabat-Morocco

“You can take migrants out of their country but you can’t take their country out of them”

Introduction

it is established, after almost half a century of contemporary international migration and accompanied academic research, that all attempts, by both countries of emigration and immigration, to draw nationals living abroad to make a somehow “happy coming back” to the home country, as a lever for the former of drawing back the number of migrants mainly for internal politics gains, and for the latter of attracting talents and investments in the development process; both acting, henceforth, on the assumption that the “patriotic call” is to be determinant in producing the desired behaviour from these proved patriotic nationals, indeed, never materialises in fact as expected, despite some financial incentives in this regard.

This sums up the situation for both emigration and immigration countries, regarding their expectations of the emigration and immigration policies implemented, during the first decades of the post WWII era of reconstruction of Europe and post-independence Nation-State rebuilding process for African emigration countries, notably in the Maghreb area.

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