I start my post today by saying that the world has become a better place by the actions of Chinese people. I say this because I know how the prices of goods were some 8-10 years ago before the swift rise-to-the-occasion act of China. I went to the market last month to purchase some computer accessories and I was surprised at the prices of very useful and exciting accessories. They were extremely low!!. I thought maybe the shop attendant didn't know the actual price of the accessories, so I decided to try another store to know if she made a mistake. Lo and behold, it was the same everywhere! Trust me, I visited the market the next day with more money to shop till I dropped.
My mind flashed back to some years ago when most of these accessories were brought in from the U.S and Europe. They were being sold at cut-throat and unreachable prices. Though there's the issue of durability, but the difference between high-quality goods produced in the US/Europe and the ones produced in China is atimes not too much considering the fact that fashion/tend/technology changes so fast that durable goods are dumped after a few months of use not because the become faulty but the fact that they get out-of-fashion.
Why western companies wouldn't love to come sell their goods in Africa can be traced to the fact that their prices are usually too high for the technology-crazy lot around here. So they move to China to produce their goods through outsourcing and the likes and ship they finished products to everywhere in the world.
One thing I sure know is that China will not continue to have foreigners continue to come and use its resources to produce goods and just pay chinese workers their wages and the government taxes and then take all the profit back to the West. If it is not in place right now, I forsee an indigenization program like that which Nigeria started in the 70s. That means that the technologies will be trapped and nationalised in Asian countries. What will America and Europe do if that happens? Food for thought!
And from the other perspective, will Africa continue to be consumers of goods produced elsewhere? If Africans continue to be heavy consumers, even to the level of King Mswati who has penchant for cars, then there is fire on the mountain!
1 comment:
you've raised a number of valid points here:
- manufacturing in china and elsewhere in asia is driving prices of most goods down.
- africa doesn't manufacture anything at the moment. the reality is that we could produce things in africa just as cheaply, because labour costs are about the same. but our greedy leaders and the reality of nonexistent basic infrastructure will continue to make africa a consumer whose resources are rapidly fleeing across the ocean.
sad.
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