Femi Akomolafe writes:
It's now official: China has overtaken the UK to become the 4th largest economy in the world (behind the US, Japan and Germany). Given the fact that just 20 years ago China was a country that was lampooned as a "sleeping giant", this is nothing short of an astounding miracle. China is now the "in-thing". Don't take my word for it, go to www: made-in-china.com and be wowed by the array of products that the "world factory" is churning out at breakneck speed. Since both China and most of Africa were in the same economic badlands in the 1970s and the 1980s, China's rapid economic transformation holds special lessons for those of us in Africa. Whilst the Chinese opted for an indigenous solution to their economic backwardness, African governments (against the advice of eminent African economists such as Professor Adedeji) chose to follow the prescriptions of the World Bank and the IMF...[more]