318
AFRICA
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S SILK ROAD
:
CHINA AND INDIA
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S
NEW ECONOMIC FRONTIERPatterns of Firm-Level Exports and Imports by Businesses in AfricaIn light of the significant heterogeneity among firms with operations in
Africa, whether in terms of nationality,
mode of entry, scale of investment, or geographic diversification, among other factors, one would expect to observe significant differences in the patterns of the exports and imports at the firm level. In fact, the 2006
survey data indicate, even from the most aggregate perspective, substantial variation see table On the sales side, for the totality of the sample of surveyed firms, the geographic distribution
of sales is rather skewed, with almost 70 percent of output produced in 2005 being sold within Africa (either in the local market or in other markets on the continent see below for further dis- aggregation on this specific point. The EU is the next largest destination market, accounting for 15 percent of the surveyed firms aggregate sales in 2005. By contrast, total exports to China and India among all the firms taken together accounted for only about 2 percent of sales. These findings are not terribly surprising,
considering the fact that, as noted earlier,
the survey deliberately omits coverage of firms in the oil-related sectors,
which account for the lion’s share of Africa’s exports, and instead,
by design, concentrates on general manufacturing and various service industries.
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On the input purchase side, the distribution across source markets is more balanced. While the EU market supplies about one-quarter of the inputs used in Africa by the surveyed firms in the aggregate, only a slightly lesser amount—about one-fifth—is procured in Africa. Goods from China
TABLE 6.5
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