Lesotho envoy appeals for wider scope of Chinese investment

Lesotho's ambassador to China says that even though the African economy is growing, it is not growing fast enough for the continent to catch up with the rest of the world.

Addressing the China-Africa Trade Promotion Association forum in Beijing, Lebohang Ntsinyi told delegates that the continent's economic portfolio has to be diversified in order to mitigate its trade risks, and appealed to Chinese investors to widen their interests.

She added that the recent global financial crisis should serve as a painful reminder to African countries, that markets are still volatile and that there is a huge risk in remaining largely dependent on the export of too few commodities.

The event heard that trade volume between China and Africa exceeded $200 billion in 2013 for the first time, according to the association's president Zhang Li, who said he accepted Ntsinyi's challenge of attracting more Chinese investment into unconventional areas in the coming years.

Ntsinyi said that for a long time, and still, the economies of several West African countries have been based mainly on cocoa beans and cotton trade; that East African countries rely on coffee and tea; and that in the south, economies are still too reliant on diamonds and gold.

A former minister of tourism, environment and culture, she explained that any economy based on the export of just one or two commodities is always vulnerable to change in trade agreements. Even unforeseen weather conditions can affect agricultural products, and the volatility of markets, fluctuation of commodity prices or sanctions can hit trade partners, she added.

"Africa needs to diversify her economic portfolio not only to improve her resilience against financial crises of any scale but also to ensure the increased market size and higher productivity of capital and labor," she said.

China is seen as an increasingly committed trade partner to Africa and continues to make heavy investment on the continent.

But Ntsinyi added that so far, cooperation between China and Africa has mainly focused on manufacturing, telecommunications and construction.

She called on Chinese investors to forge new channels of trade and investment cooperation, in unexploited sectors.

"They should bear in mind that there is no shortage of business opportunities in Africa," she said.

She appealed to Chinese investors to seize the opportunity to invest in commercial agriculture, for instance, because people would always need food.

Among the other unconventional investment areas, she highlighted investment in innovation hubs, to increase transfer of technology and experience, and the tourism sector.

At the same time, she appealed to African governments to carry out reforms on economic policies to create more favorable investment conditions, and insisted that by forging new channels of cooperation between China and Africa, Sino-African relations would be improved.

"As a continent, we look forward to continued cooperation, which can create successful business ventures that are mutually beneficial to all parties - stronger lasting relations between Africa and China."

For China Daily