Posted on 01/11/2020 1:07:56 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
I set foot in Africa for the first time in 2017. As Special Advisor to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, I have visited Kenya and Rwanda. Having done a lot of research before leaving, I thought I knew what to expect and hoped to get out of my comfort zone...To my surprise, it was not much different from what I had experienced at home in China.
...The digital revolution has the potential to bring tremendous prosperity to the continent, provided it has the entrepreneurs and businesses capable of carrying it out. Skeptics may well point to the inadequacy of its infrastructure and believe that it is not at all ready to enter the digital age, but they are mistaken: on the contrary, it is very well placed.
In this new world, heavy infrastructure is of little use... Fortunately, this was not a problem in China in 1999, when I created Alibaba. We had a large population, low per capita income, and poorly developed infrastructure in the retail, logistics and banking sectors.
But two decades later, the number of Internet users has risen from 8.8 million to 850 million; per capita income has risen from as low as $800 to as high as $9,000; and e-commerce sales total $1 trillion.
The Alibaba Ecosystem alone has created more than 40 million jobs throughout the country. Last year, e-commerce revenues exceeded $97 billion in rural China, generating nearly 7 million new jobs.
And Africa can do even better. As China, the lack of infrastructure is an asset there. Another ingredient for its future success is its 1.3 billion inhabitants, 40% of whom are under 16 years old. Six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world are African. And the number of smartphones per capita is growing rapidly.
(Excerpt) Read more at theafricareport.com ...
I guess we should be afraid.
That’s downright optimistic.
If China thinks they can colonize Africa, all I can say is, “Good luck with all that!”
The flaw in his reasoning is that Africa is populated by Africans.
Something wrong with Jack Ma.
Maybe they can colonize the middle east with our blessing.
Bull
As someone who has been to Africa, this guy is beyond optimistic...
China has this nice central government that can edict everything and everyone work toward a common goal..
Not so with Africa. Most nations dont even have strong central government, let alone a central driver for all the nations.
Africa life expectancy is in thr 40s... it is nowhere near China of 20 years ago
Have they all quit chopping up the next village over with machetes yet?
There are a few economies in Africa that are decently run. If the kleptocrats are run out power, Africa has nowhere to go but up.
Africa is the China of 6000 years ago.
Right, it’s hard to create an advanced civilization when the average iq of some of the countries in Africa is 70.
Make Wakanda Great Again!
That is wrong. Africa will never progress any further, in fact in time it will revert to where it was 500 years ago.
Wrong, 20 years from now Africa will still be the sh!thole continent that it has always been.
Perhaps Jack Ma envisions a kinder gentler Belgian Congo Free State.
Africa: On the verge of greatness for a thousand years.
World IQ Map. Anything less than 95 is retarded. 65 is barely functional.
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