ABSTRACT
Although the overall share of global Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) flows from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the Maghreb countries is still small, the trend is growing. To corroborate this, whereas in 2003, the Maghreb share of pan-African stock of FDI from PRC was just 2.5 per cent, by 2010 it had risen to 8.2 per cent (cf. Pairault 2013a, 2013b). Visibly, PRC’s investment engagement in the member states of the Union du Maghreb Arabe (UMA) of North Africa are targeting industrial co-operation. A report issued recently by the African Development Bank (AfDB) argues that PRC’s investment has expanded from the energy and mineral sectors in some North African countries, towards providing capital to set up manufacturing and assembly plants in areas as diverse as textiles on the one extreme to and automobiles on the other. This is an encouraging sign for investments in the UMA region (Alden and Aggad-Clerx 2012: 6). Moreover, the report highlighted the Chinese decision to establish some of its flagship Economic and Trade Co-operation Zones (ETCZs) in the UMA region, linked to meeting both the growing domestic demand in these host countries, and to serving as a platform for access to other markets. Overall, these developments demonstrate a resolve and willingness by the PRC to engage in long-term relations, and to deepen economic co-operation with its North African UMA partners. The question that needs to be raised here is, why do the UMA countries have to wait for the Far East giant, PRC, to help them build their own industrial productive capacities? The question is even more taunting, considering that these very same UMA countries have been engaged in long-standing economic interactions with countries from a region that is truly an ‘industrial pioneer and giant’ – Europe and especially the EU with which they have maintained formalised relationships with for decades, if not centuries!
