Source: Global Times    Published: 2016-7-26

A recent media report grabbed people`s attention that said African migrants were giving up on their Chinese dream, and on Monday, the Chengdu Economic Daily confirmed that the number of African merchants working on Little North Road, a well-known African expat community in Guangzhou, has significantly dropped.

Although it is too early to conclusively state that Africans have abandoned China simply based on reports about Little North Road, it does need to be acknowledged that the Chinese economy and various Africa economies have encountered increasingly strong headwinds.

With China`s economic slowdown, which has cut into the nation`s demand for bulk commodities, African countries may be finding it difficult to promote sales of their resources in the Chinese market.

For instance, the outlook for growth for South Africa has been getting grimmer in the past few months. The IMF earlier this month cut its forecast for South Africa`s economic growth in 2016 to 0.1 percent, after data showed the country`s total imports from China dropped 23.4 percent in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, South African exports to China, its largest export market, dropped 21.1 percent in the first half of the year, casting a shadow over the African country`s already faltering economy.

It has become normal to see an increasingly desolate scene on the Little North Road amid cooling economic exchanges between China and Africa. To an extent, what`s happening in the African expat community is just a microcosm of the challenges facing all foreign merchants from countries with a resources export economy.

Most such nations are developing countries distributing over regions in Africa and South America. If those countries can not diversify their trade structure with China, there will likely to be more instances of slowing cooperation between nations.

A crucial next step is for these countries to boost exports of their light industrial products. In this regard, hopefully the One Road, One Belt initiative can play a role in diversifying trade baskets.

Industrial parks tailored to improve development of local manufacturing will be the best platform in One Road, One Belt to achieve this diversification. Additionally, the initiative may serve as a catalyst for furthering bilateral trade by promoting infrastructure upgrades in other less developed regions outside the route.

China should avoid allowing the initiative to become a platform for migration of China`s outdated excess capacity to other countries. In contrast, the initiative should be used to boost local economic development and revive trade ties with Africa and South America.