Southeast Asia and Africa – Trade and Investment Relations in the XXIst Century

Abstract

In the twenty-first century African countries have not only taken a significant step forward in their economic development as a whole, but have also strengthened their positions in the world economy. One manifestation of this is the emergence of new foreign economic partners for African countries. African countries have become more interesting, not only for Asian giants – China and India, but also for Southeast Asia countries, which have just recently started their outward expansion. The main purpose of this study is to create an initial, most general panorama of how trade and investment relations between the Southeast Asian and African countries developed in the new century. As regard for trade, we used a quite complete statistical database under the auspices of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Southeast Asia was represented by all 10 of ASEAN member-countries. The African continent was portrayed by 47 countries. A comprehensive analysis of the statistical data showed that the trade operations of Southeast Asian countries with their African partners were profitable for them: in 2010–2016 they had a permanent surplus on these operations. It was found that in 2010–2016. the main partners of African countries were Thailand (with turnover of 69 billion dollars.). Singapore ($64 billion)) and Malaysia ($48 billion).). Companies from Southeast Asian countries expect to expand on the African continent, taking into account, in particular, the following factors: the need to enlarge and diversify their imports of oil and gas. as well as some types of industrial raw materials that are not available in Southeast Asia; constantly growing opportunities to expand exports of their goods, in order to meet growing consumer demand in African countries; Southeast Asian exporters expect a significant expansion of their exports following the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area) in 2022. As for investment links, we were forced to gather by trifles everything concerned about Southeast Asian investments on African continent. Reliable generalizing statistics on this segment of economic relations either do not exist, or it is not available to research community. As a result of monitoring of investment contacts, it was possible to collect the final material giving a short  overview of this process.