ABSTRACT
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Africa’s economic prospects and regional connectivity seemed promising. However, the pandemic has revealed an imbalance in the goals of the African Union Agenda 2063 due to the critical infrastructures needed to address this crisis. This chapter argues that despite their similar infrastructure connectivity models and development financing, China and Japan have not fully engaged with the idea of sharing the costs and the benefits arising from blending their connectivity agendas, which could be determinant in mitigating the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on fulfilling the African aspirations embodied in Agenda 2063. Assuming China and Japan overcome their development and policy differences, one asks how feasible it is to discuss the merging of their development agendas, namely the Belt and Road Initiative and, inter-alia, the Asia–Africa Growth Corridor, and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific to implement Agenda 2063. And, whether this results from their efforts to merge their connectivity agendas or from each other’s bilateral (policy) development agenda to promote regional connectivity in Africa? Finally, to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected their potential collaborative response (or China–Africa win-win cooperation) for transformative change in Africa?
