More than flights of fancy

Improved and increased air travel between Africa and China will increase ties, and vice versa

Africa's dearth of good infrastructure, particularly in transport, has long hobbled its economic development. The continent's terrain throws up particularly difficult challenges for land transport, so aviation is probably more important here than in other continents. However, in Africa the aviation industry has long been kept in a holding pattern because of the slow growth of the middle class.

The subprime crisis in the US in 2007-08 and the subsequent European debt crisis have also played a role in the African aviation industry's failure to gain momentum, and it has been in dire need of some kind of breakthrough.

In November, Kenya Airways opened non-stop direct flights from Nairobi, Kenya's capital, to Guangzhou, making it the latest airline to operate direct flights between the Chinese mainland and sub-Saharan Africa. That is an important decision in China-Africa relations.

From the 1960s Chinese aid to Africa formed the foundations of a solid relationship, but it is over the past 10 years that the greatest progress has been made in China-Africa ties.

That has all happened as China's economic reforms have continued, the country has opened up to the world and the winds of political and economic change have blown across Africa.

As those changes have happened, transactions between China and Africa, be they economic or personal, have steadily increased. However, anyone wanting to travel between the two has had to endure a trip that was at once tortuous and torturous, one lasting 17 hours. The direct flights need about 10 hours.

Kenya Airways' decision to put on the flights may simply demonstrate that someone in the company has a great deal of commercial nous, but it probably also provides yet more evidence of just how strong ties between China and Africa, at a personal level, have become.

The airline had previously had direct flights to the capitals of just two countries, Britain and France, reflecting Africa's long ties with Europe.

More and more people are realizing that the relationship between China and Africa is strategic on both sides and that strategic interests can only be achieved through more personal exchanges, which augurs well for Africa's aviation industry.

China, as the biggest developing country, probably has a lot more to share with Africa than do developed economies. Africa can help China with its economic transition, including supplying natural resources. China can help Africa get onto the economic development fast track by introducing infrastructure, be it in agriculture, telecommunications, transport or other areas.

In such an atmosphere, African air transport is likely to flourish because of the increasing number of flights, both intercontinental and intra-continental.

While contracts and foreign direct investment will spur much of the demand, tourism will also play an important role, and as Africa's middle class grows many more will opt to fly when they travel.

The growing number of direct flights between Africa and China will promote ties between the two by making the exchange of information and personnel easier, and more business opportunities will bring a growing number of direct air flights, too.

While commercial activity will naturally increase human movement, the governments will need to work to reduce barriers to exchange. Chinese and African governments should introduce policies to support such personal exchanges, including policies for immigrants. Many of the Africans living in Guangzhou feel the effects of a lack of such policies.

The author is a lecturer at the Management School of Shanghai University and a research fellow at the China Europe International Business School Lujiazui International Finance Research Center.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/28/2014 page9)