Even before the launch of its attractive « Belt and Road » initiative – laying solid foundations for increased penetration, particularly in Africa (with 43 signatory countries) – China had already become the must for offshoring. The size of the domestic market, low costs (depending on the quality required) and dumping policies convinced many to set up in China or to outsource production there. The exhaustive list would probably be edifying, especially from the point of view of the abandonment of sovereignty freely granted by some (States and/or companies) in sensitive areas – the Covid 19 pandemia is a bitter reminder of this.

Certainly the Middle Kingdom is the second world power, the first exporter and the most populous country (1/5 of the world’s population), hence its « natural » ability to become the universal factory and gradually impose its style beyond its borders.

The unregulated wall-washing that is globalisation creates areas of rupture in our State-Nation couples, a threat that must be countered without delay if we want to preserve independence, security, companies (especially SME’s) and jobs.

While relocation is not inevitable – as some authorities now curiously recall – setting up abroad can be an opportunity for repositioning and development. But going international is an entrepreneurial adventure, a challenge, which must be particularly well framed, since business conditions and logic are very different from one country to another. Who will think of imagining a location or partnership in Africa ? The constraints and risks are known and therefore measurable. The opportunities are multiplying under the impact of massive investments (exploitation of hydrocarbons and mining resources, road, airport and port infrastructures, energy production and distribution, cement plants etc..), the boom in mobile telephony and money, new technologies, the huge deposit of arable land, the multiplication of international financing & aid, the capacity for action of African development banks, the restructuring of the private banking sector, improved governance, the dynamism of African entrepreneurs and the motivation of the elites, the emergence of an African middle class, the need to include a young and rapidly growing population …a declared willingness of States to enlarge their markets by strengthening regional trade areas (Economic Communities, Monetary Unions, African Continental Free Trade Area). There is unanimous agreement on the continent’s formidable growth potential, but success is hiding under very disparate situations and conditions.

Far from being overly optimistic, Africa is therefore not the worst place to do business, except that it is necessary to take the right measure of its realities with adapted multi-criteria analyses and concrete feedback from business in each country. Investing sufficiently downstream in the value chain will offer a differentiated positioning through the creation of greater local added value contributing to the economic independence of countries ; unlike the major powers whose lobbying aims to carve out zones of influence (not only economic) relays of their own growth, China in the first place. Anything but a coïncidence !