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It is a well-known fact that Africa continent is grappling with developmental challenges. The main objectives of this paper therefore are to examine the impact of neoliberalism on these developmental challenges and to encourage African leaders to take a bold and radical departure from the norm in order to chart a new course of development which will take the continent out of the woods of economic retardation and development deficit which envelope the region now. Drawing on the case study which centre on African realities and experiences, the paper discovered that the claim that neo-liberalism is the undisputable means of attaining economic development in Africa is an illusion. On the strength of this, the paper expands on the theory of assimilation with its concomitant smart or strategic protectionism through the adaptation of foreign technology, promotion of education and encouragement of entrepreneurship as means of genuinely engendering economic development in African. The research adopts qualitative and case study methodology. Similarly, the work embraces inductive research approach as the research process systematically focuses on finding answer to the question Of, What effective step can African governments take in order to candidly overcome the challenge of underdevelopment? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, the world has experienced significant economic and political transformation, which has led to adjustments in economic interaction between countries. However, this new pattern of economic engagement has not attracted adequate investigation from management researchers. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by advancing a conceptual framework that can guide researchers towards investigating new patterns of economic engagement across countries. Chinese economic engagement in Africa is used to exemplify how the conceptual framework can be used. The paper concludes by providing directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though many African and Asian countries share a common history of European colonialism and thus a model of economic development shaped within the aegis of center-periphery analysis, many Asian countries have been able to ride through the burden of center-periphery economics and built more successful political economies than most African countries. This state of affairs has often led many African analysts to point to Asian success stories like China and South Korea for comparative analysis and often see these Asian countries as models of socio-economic and socio-cultural success to emulate. In particular, Africans in the Diaspora, especially Africans in China, tend to compare very frequently the socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of their host countries with those of their source countries. This paper outlines and discusses how a group of Africans living in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia see Korea and Korean culture through the prism of Korean television dramas, which constitute a popular cultural phenomenon among Hong Kong/Asian youths. Through qualitative and quantitative survey methods, participant-observation, and questionnaire surveys, the paper reports on how African community members of Hong Kong and others think of Koreans. We show that Africans draw a lot of comparisons between Korean and African ways of conceptualizing the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that, while globalization is a catalyst for international migration, its impact on Africa's development remains polemical. Generally, discussions on the impact of international migration on African development feature two contrasting views. One view, which is gradually gaining currency, points to tangible benefits from migration in the form of migrant remittance, which recent World Bank reports identify as the second largest form of capital flow to Africa after foreign direct investments (FDI). This view thus sees the impact of international migration on African development as positive. This paper, however, takes a different view and argues that the adverse effects of international migration on Africa, in the form of brain drain—the emigration of Africa's trained professionals—far outweighs the perceived advantages associated with migrant remittances. Consequently, on the aggregate, Africa's development suffers under the weight of international migration. The paper thus suggests the formulation of workable policies by the AU to manage the brain drain. Such policy measures should include a conscious attempt to address the root causes of the so-called "push factors" which instigate the emigration of Africa's brains in the first instance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper does not deal directly with the relations between Japan and Africa; instead it looks at Malaysia and Côte d'Ivoire with the objective of portraying Japanese contribution to Malaysian economic development and identifying some lessons that can be learnt by Africa from it. Both countries had a comparable macroeconomic outlook until 1980, with economics based on similar primary goods such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, timber etc., which are typical of tropical climates. However, following the sharp decline in international prices since 1980, Malaysia registered a high economic growth and became successfully industrialized. Côte d'Ivoire suffered an economic crisis and a balance of payment deficit. Moreover, the latter is not a special case among African countries. The paper also seeks to advance some hypotheses in order to explain the phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, Uganda has become one of the world's fastest-growing economies, but the country's development needs have not yet been met, and the government's revenue sources are less than sufficient to satisfy them. Therefore, when oil was discovered in 2006, hopes were raised regarding Uganda's future, since the oil money could provide substantial funds enabling a transformation of the country. According to the latest figures, Uganda has 6.5 billion barrels of oil, which makes the country the third-largest oil holder in the SSA region (after Nigeria and Angola). Unfortunately, even though almost a decade has passed since the first oil was struck, production figures have remained at zero. Given the huge needs of Ugandan society and political rhetoric of Uganda as a developmental state, it is perplexing that it is taking so long to start extracting oil in the country. The major objective of this paper is to identify and analyse major causes of oil production delays (underdevelopment of infrastructure, environmental aspects, disputes with international oil companies, legal framework adjustments, and above all vast patronage network) as well as to contribute to a better understanding of recent dynamics in the Ugandan oil sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the intensity and the volume of financial and economic dimensions as it pertains to the relationship between China and various African countries since the end of the 1990s, the debate on these relations has just begun within a global context. The discussion on the nature of South-South relations, especially between a newly emerging industrial country, located in Asia, and the African countries, which represent the least industrialized area of the world, has more recently brought the subject of the unequal balance of power between the two regions under intellectual scrutiny. Several intellectual debates on China-Africa relations have been mostly reactive in the sense that many analyses have focused on Africa's past relations with the Global North. The existing literature on these relations has, to a large extent, not sufficiently located the discourse within the existing dominant ideologies, namely neo-imperialism and neo-liberalism. It is also important to localize these relations within the World Trade Organization's dogmas and practices, the United Nations Charter, and African Union Charter in order to assess whether or not they can be characterized as either neo-imperialist or neo-liberal. Furthermore, it is important to identify on which specific areas these economic relations have generally focused and in which specific African countries they have been dominant. How do the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party perceive and define them? How do the African Union and specific African countries perceive and define these relations? And what are the policy implications in China and in the African public sectors? The main objective of this paper is, using the data and figures from Chinese sectoral investments and export-import of China and specific African countries to make a critical evaluative analysis of these relations and determine if they are qualified to be called neo-imperialist or neo-liberal. The article is both an empirically-based analysis and a reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the major ways in which the economic development model of Meiji Japan, 1868-1912, applies to contemporary Africa. The focus is on capital formation and technology policies that contributed to Meiji Japan's rapid industrial capitalist growth: self-directed strategies, technological borrowing, taking advantage of shifts in comparative advantage from the product cycle, educational policy, business assistance, financial institutions, transfer of agricultural savings to industry, low wages policy, industrial dualistic complementarity, and foreign-exchange rate policies conducive to export expansion. For each of these policies, the author analyzes the extent to which African countries can emulate Meiji Japan's approaches or whether changing circumstances require modification of the Japanese model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A regression analysis of 92 Asian, African, and Latin American countries during 1970-85 produced the following results: (1) The effect of external debt on industrial growth is positive and statistically significant at high levels of state coercive capacity. (2) This effect is negative and statistically significant at low levels of state coercive capacity. (3) At middle levels of state coercive capacity external debt registered no effect. Based on these findings this paper puts forward the following three arguments: First, the "modernization" hypothesis of a positive relationship between external debt and industrial growth is more likely if state institutions are strong and capable. Second, the "dependency" hypothesis of a negative relationship between external debt and industrial growth is more likely when state institutions are weak and relatively incapacitated. Finally therefore, these two perspectives may be studied as special cases of a grander theory of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]