Yes, The headline is correct. Companies in the USA are losing out on major business opportunities in Africa… as are European Companies… and they are losing to China!!
But do not take my word for it, google “China Africa” and you will see for yourself. China is not only winning in Africa they are moving at an ever increasing pace and will dominate African trade and be the primary “investor” in Africa because of the “west’s” inability to effectively coordinate investment strategies.
What do I mean by coordinated investment strategy…. it is not a complicated idea…. it is the working with other companies in a form of horizontal integration to assure the success of the investment.
For example: If the US Company is interested in Mining. then transportation becomes an important issue… yet the availability of efficient roads or rail transport is limited at best.
The coordination becomes searching for partners who wish to build a Trans-African Railroad or who are interested in highway/road development such as Trans-African Development Company.
Telecommunications and Internet is similarly available by numerous companies wishing to justify their investment and looking for “customers” to make their network affordable.
Electricity or other power sources also lend themselves to partnering with such companies.
Simply: Since no “company” has the ability or resources of a COUNTRY… like China…. then Companies interested in investing in Africa MUST find a way to compete NOW…. by affiliating with other Companies, Groups or Organizations that can facilitate their Investment into Africa.
This Article is somewhat self serving… yet it should also help Companies interested in investing in Africa, a Strategy for making such investments.
Self-serving because Trans African Development is looking to rehabilitate the road infrastructure that could make their investment economic model look better and increase the feasibility of such investments. HOWEVER, Trans African Development is NOT looking for investors to rehabilitate the existing road infrastructure in Africa… Yes, we are looking to raise the 50 million Euro to jump start our efforts in Africa… BUT, the real money to rehabilitate MUST come from those Governments of the Industrialized world to rehabilitate the basic road infrastructure in Africa.
DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) has but 300 miles of PAVED roads… yet it’s land mass is that of ALL of Western Europe. It is not enough to get a concession for the development of Natural resources in DRC… it must be transported to global markets.
Trans African Development is looking for sponsors to implement a strategy of marketing and promotions and PR to raise the funds for this Road rehabilitation that will not only bring African gratitude to those countries (and therefore those countries Companies) but will help hundreds of millions of Africans as well as give these “traditional” Western Companies access to those resources and be able to effectively compete with China for those resources and markets.
Sadly I believe that the “traditional” Western Companies may be too late already as their existing strategists have lacked the ability to think beyond their industry and their standard business models. But I welcome feedback form those “Companies” who wish to find alternatives to their current models and who are willing to seek markets outside the black box of traditional thinking that will only cause them to lose out to China in the long run especially in Africa.
