OVERVIEW
29
At
the same time, Chinese and Indian firms engage more extensively in regional integration on the African continent relative to African firms themselves. They also exhibit more extensive integration into a more geographically diverse set of third country markets outside of Africa than do African businesses see table 6. These are important findings, suggesting that Chinese and Indian firms are effecting greater integration of the African economy—whether on the continent itself or into the global marketplace—
than heretofore has been the case by Africa’s own businesses.
There is also strong evidence that Chinese and Indian firms are vehicles for the transmission of advances
in technology and skills, as well as new equipment, to the African continent. This is the classic case of spillovers in the host market that
often accompany flows of FDI; see table To be sure, there are significant differences between Chinese and Indian firms operating in Africa. Chinese businesses
in Africa tend to have a dif-TABLE 6
Distribution of Output Sales by Destination Market and Firm Nationality (percent)
Destination market
African
Chinese
Indian
European
Domestic 85 81 89
Other Africa 8 14 10 Europe 4 0
0 North America 0
0 India 0
0 Other South Asia 1
0 China 3
0 Other East Asia 0
0 Other 1
0 Source World Bank staff. Note Data pertain to 2005 median annual sales.
TABLE 5
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