Participant Observation on the 3rd China-Africa Economic Trade Expo (CAETE) on SMEs Participation: Lessons Learned from Participating African Countries
Abstract
This paper focuses on the participation of SMEs in the 3rd China-Africa Economic Trade Expo (CAETE) which was conducted in Changsha, China from 28th June to 2nd July 2023 with a theme “Common Development for a Shared Future”. This paper employed a participatory observation method to collect data from 15 participating countries in the expo i.e. Nigeria, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Morocco, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius, South Africa, Cote D’Ivoire, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The aim was to understand the contribution of the SMEs on the products showcased by participating African countries. Data were collected using the observation checklist to understand the types of products showcased and the industry they belonged, the kind of exhibitors showcasing these products whether Africans or foreigners, as well as challenges and opportunities for exhibitors and the general experience of the expo and what can African countries learn from these experiences in the future and for upcoming expos. The results revealed that, the agricultural sector was leading in all products that were showcased by most countries. Agricultural products and agriculture byproducts had a big share in most countries followed by the manufacturing sector with textile products, cultural and handcraft products, and minerals products. Moreover, in most of the countries that were observed, exhibitors from Africa were the ones showcasing these products while in some countries there were a mixture of foreigners and African exhibitors in one booth. One of the challenges for some exhibitors was a language, while the main opportunity was acceptance of the African products to most people who attended the expo. This paper recommends that deliberate efforts need to be made to improve the SME sector in order to increase their manufacturing value chain participation in internal and external markets. Moreover, signed cooperative projects during the Expo should help facilitate technology transfer; employment generation; and economic diversification through industrialization. The study also recommends that African countries should improve competitiveness and productivity in sectors contributing heavily to their national GDP while also putting forth strategies to improve low-performing sectors through policies and structural reforms with an overall aim of improving productivity and reducing trade imbalance that exists with different countries including China. Lastly, African agents should also ensure that the bilateral agreements they sign with the different countries have the best interest of those countries for their own development and that they have greater leverage of benefiting from those agreements as their counterparts.
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