Globalization and emergent Africa-Asia dialogue: The good, the bad and the ugly

Abstract

The increasing globalization agenda of the world has deepened dialogue between African and Asian countries. The first of such dialogue was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia between African and Asian experts and Parliamentary leaders on issues of poverty, economic growth and governance. Beneath the emergent Africa-Asia dialogue is the “rotten” animal instinct, which drives one party to use brains or brawn to take what should be (could be) the other party. China, for example, has lent $3 billion loan financing arrangement to gain secure access to the recent oil funds from the governments of Ghana just as it was provided in Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina who have both previously defaulted. The study explores the globalization–rich-poor dialogue nexus to investigate the good, the bad and the ugly side of it in Ghana. It then examines the implications of Ghana-China dialogue on economic growth. Together with other secondary data analyzed, it was found out that offering aid without preconditions, China –Ghana dialogue has presented an attractive alternative to conditional Western aid, and gained valuable diplomatic support to defend its international interests. However, activities of some of the Chinese companies are gradually taken the good side of the policy. The implications of China-Ghana policy dialogue is therefore a mixed blessing and that the consequences on most teething local organizations are likely to prove deleterious if laws protecting these organizations are not enforced by policy makers. Key