India and China in Africa

China and India’s growing economic activity and foreign direct investment in Africa has often been regarded as a great opportunity for growth and integration of the African continent into the global economy.

• Although both India and China have a long history of trade and investment with Africa, the scale and pace of Chinese and Indian investment flows to Africa in the last decade is truly unprecedented. In the initial phase of Africa’s post-colonial era, Chinese investment in Africa was mostly concentrated in the infrastructure sectors, particularly railways. A few Indian private sector companies, notably the Birla Group, started investing in East ....