Over the past 20 years, more than 50 special economic zones (SEZs) owned, financed, constructed, operated or supported by Chinese entities have been established across Africa. These zones raised huge expectations in their host countries that they would spearhead rapid industrialisation and economic growth, and repeat some of the successes of China’s domestic SEZs, which played a vital role in advancing China’s own economic development. But to what extent have these China-associated SEZs in Africa helped realise these ambitions?

This panel examines the characteristics of China-associated SEZs in Africa, and evaluates their outcomes along not just economic but also social, geographic, environmental, political and security dimensions. It reports on the findings of a Lau China Institute one-year research project on China-associated zones in Africa, with a special focus on case studies from Nigeria and Uganda.

The session will launch the report: Zones of Contention: Performance, pitfalls and politics of China-associated economic development zones in Africa, and will introduce the new toolbox for promoting inclusive and sustainable growth and investment in SEZs that is being developed from this project.

Join us at 11.30am on Thursday 17 October for a discussion with Eka Ikpe, Charlotte Goodburn, Jan Knoerich and Soumya Mishra from King's College London, chaired by Obert Hodzi from the University of Liverpool.

This is an in-person event. Registration is required.

Speakers

Charlotte Goodburn is Reader in Chinese Politics and Development and Deputy Director of the Lau China Institute, King’s College London. She is also attached to the Department of International Development at King’s. Before starting at King’s, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. Dr Goodburn’s research and teaching engages with the politics of internal migration; urbanisation; the comparative development of India and China; and the movement of policies and “models” into and out of China. She completed her PhD in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge and has a BA Hons (in History) and an MPhil (in Contemporary Chinese Studies), also from the University of Cambridge.

Jan Knoerich is Reader in China and the Global Political Economy at the Lau China Institute, School of Global Affairs, King’s College London. He lectures on the Chinese economy and Chinese international investments, and his research focuses on the business, political economy and development dimensions of Chinese international investments and financial internationalisation. Dr Knoerich’s work has appeared in leading academic journals, such as New Political Economy, the Journal of World Business, and the China Quarterly, and he has written several books and book chapters. His research has received funding support from the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council, and Dr Knoerich has been a consultant on foreign direct investment for the United Nations, European Union and various governments, think-tanks and the private sector.

Eka Ikpe is Professor of Development Economics in Africa and Director of the African Leadership Centre at King's College London. Eka’s research offers a critical understanding of socio-economic transformation that centres spaces in Africa and parts of the Global South across the fields of economic development and peace. Her current themes of interest include state capital and developmentalism, industrialisation and structural transformation, creative economies, health, peacebuilding and reconstruction. Eka’s research has supported the work of the UNECA, ECOWAS, UK Ministry of Defence, UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Africa, UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, UK FCDO and global NGOs, among others. Eka is co-editor of the Book Series, Peace, Society and the State in Africa (Bloomsbury), African Perspectives on Peacebuilding and Leadership (Bloomsbury) and Creative Economies in Africa (Routledge). She serves as a Trustee for the global thinktank, ODI. 

Soumya Mishra is a Lecturer in India and Global Affairs. Soumya completed her PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford, focusing on migrant labour and employment relations in the Delhi NCR. More recently, she has been working as a research associate on a British Academy-funded project led by Dr Charlotte Goodburn and Dr Jan Knoerich on Chinese-style SEZs in India. Her research interests lie in migration, comparative development, and mental health.

Obert Hodzi is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Liverpool. He is an International Relations scholar focusing on international politics, conflict and security, and non-Western emerging powers in global governance with empirical expertise in China and Africa. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Lingnan University, Hong Kong, an MA in Democratic Governance and Civil Society from Osnabrück University, Germany and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Zimbabwe. Obert co-edits democracyinafrica.org; and is a board member of the Chinese in Africa/African in China Research Network.