The China-Africa value chain: can Africa's small-scale entrepreneurs engage successfully in global trade?

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Periodical article

Title:	The China-Africa value chain: can Africa's small-scale entrepreneurs engage successfully in global trade?
Authors:	Lyons, Michal Brown, Alison Li, Zhigang
Year:	2013
Periodical:	African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462)
Volume:	56
Issue:	3
Pages:	77-100
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Subsaharan Africa China
Subjects:	international trade consumer goods industrial products imports small enterprises informal sector
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2013.80
Abstract:	This article analyses the value chain for Chinese manufactured goods such as garments and textiles sold in sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing attention on imports from Guangzhou, China, the article examines the functioning of network value chains and the opportunities for the African poor to integrate into value chains and become upwardly mobile in the process. It explores the opportunities for Africans with small, private businesses in the trade, the potential for long-term business development, and how strategies of engagement have changed over time. It finds that the value chains for low-cost goods vary. There is great diversity of entry levels and opportunities for socioeconomic mobility, and traders evolve diverse strategies to obtain and defend their position in the chain. These findings are discussed in terms of understandings of international value chains, the informal economy, and African economic development strategies. Bibliogr., note, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]