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China, Morocco and Africa: Ties for a shared Development

From

19
9:00 am September 2019

To

19
5:00 pm September 2019

By Invitation

Policy Center for the New South

At a time when the African economy is entering a new stage of development and transformation, there is an important potential for strengthening economic cooperation between China and Africa. The Belt and Road Initiative, adopted by the Chinese government, comes to deepen the already existing ties, and places Morocco as a key actor in China’s expansion to new African markets. In this regard, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017, aiming to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. 


Discussing the China-Morocco economic cooperation is only relevant when analyzing four priority areas for China and Africa, with Morocco as a particular focus: Infrastructure, Industry, Trade and Development Strategies. China’s presence in Africa can be first analyzed through its investments in infrastructure, since it plays a huge role in financing the pressing needs of African countries in performant and sustainable (green) railways, highways, bridges and ports. Also, as industrialization in the continent is moving forward, some African countries have been successful so far at attracting Chinese manufacturing ventures, thus it is relevant to assess China’s involvement in developing an African industry and integrating it into the Global Value Chains. Trade remains finally a key indicator in evaluating the overall economic cooperation between China and Morocco, and a relevant topic allowing to identify the challenges and the necessary adjustments. This analysis leads naturally to a discussion on the different development strategies adopted by China on one hand, and Morocco and the rest of Africa on the other. 
 

For more information, please contact: 

Mohamed Abrouq, Junior Program Officer at m.abrouq@policycenter.ma 

 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

09:00 – 09:30

Registration & welcome coffee

09:30 - 09:45

Opening Remarks

Karim El Aynaoui, President, Policy Center for the New South

H.E Li Li, Ambassador, Embassy of the People's Republic of China to Morocco

09:45 - 10:15

Introductory Remarks

El Rezrazi Mostafa, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

10:15 - 11:15

Panel 1: Chinese Infrastructure & Capital Projects in Africa

Chair:

John Yearwood, President, Yearwood Media Group

Speakers:

Dr. Zhou Jinyan, Assistant Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Ihssane Guennoun, International Relations Specialist, Policy Center for the New South

Mehdi Laraki, President, GELACOM Group

11:15 - 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:45

Panel 2: Industrialization and Global Value Chains; towards a structural transformation in Africa

Chair:

Adel Hamaiza, Research Fellow, Chatham House, UK

Speakers:

Larabi Jaidi, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Nabila Berrada, Senior Advisor, Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency

Mehdi Laraki, President, Asia Commision, Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM)

 

14:00 - 15:15

Panel 3: China-Africa Security Cooperation

Chair:

Abdelhak Bassou, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Speakers:

Chris Alden, Professor in International Relations, London School of Economics (LSE)

Kidane Kiros, Executive Director, IPSS

Hu Yang, Assistant Professor, Institute of African Geography and Resource Environment, Yunnan Normal Universitry

Liu Litao, Associate Professor, School of International Studies, School of History, Nanjing University

15:15 - 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 - 16:45

Panel 4: Converged Pathways for a shared Development

Chair:

Bouchra Rahmouni, Director of Research, Partnerships and Events, Policy Center for the New South

Speakers:

Fathallah Oualalou, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Wang Heng, Vice Director and Professor of the Institute of African Studies

Guo Wei, Associate Professor, Departement of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Nanjing University

16:45 - 17:00

Closing Remarks

Karim El Aynaoui, President, Policy Center for the New South

H.E. Li Li, Ambassador, Embassy of China to Morocco

Speakers
Karim El Aynaoui
Executive President
Karim El Aynaoui is Executive President of the Policy Center for the New South. He is also Executive Vice-President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Dean of its Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences Cluster. Karim El Aynaoui is an economist. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco where he held the position of Director of Economics, Statistics, and International Relations. At the Central Bank of Morocco, he was in charge of the Research Department and equally a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. Previously, he worked for eight years at the World Bank as an Economist for its regional units of the Middle East and North Africa and Africa. Karim El Aynaoui has published books and journal articles on macroeconomic issues in developing countries. Hi ...
Kidane Kiros
Senior Fellow
Dr. Kidane Kiros Bitsue is currently Professor-Researcher at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University’s Faculty of Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences and Senior Fellow at Policy Centre for the New South. He holds a PhD degree in Development Studies. Prior to joining Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Dr Kidane served as the Director of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University (AAU) from March 2014 – June 2019. In his capacity as the Director of IPSS, he had directed the successful conduct of six (6) annual conferences of Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa that took place from 2014 – 2019. As a result of efforts done under his directorship in the areas of academic, research and outreach activities; IPSS had been rated among the t ...
Ihssane Guennoun
International Relations Specialist (On Leave)
Ihssane Guennoun is an International Relations Specialist at the Policy Center for the New South. She contributes to the Geopolitics and International Relations research program by focusing on West Africa. Her research also covers security in the Sahel region as well as recent developments of Asian players in Africa. Prior to joining the Policy Center in 2015, she spent six months at the German Marshall Fund of the United States within the Wider Atlantic program. Ihssane has a double degree in International Relations from the School of Governance and Economics of Rabat (Morocco) and the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence (France). ...
Nabila Berrada
Senior Advisor, Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency
...
H.E. Li Li
Ambassador, Embassy of China to Morocco
...
Fathallah Oualalou
Senior Fellow
Fathallah Oualalou is an economist, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South.  He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Paris in 1968. Prior to joining the Policy Center for the New South, he served as a professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat and other higher education institutions in Morocco, and as an associate professor at several foreign universities. He is the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of economic theory, financial economics, international economic relations, the economies of Maghreb countries, the Arab world, and the Euro-Mediterranean area. In addition, he was the president of the Association of Moroccan Economists at the Union of Arab Economists. His political activism began with the creation, in the 1960s, of ...
Chris Alden
Professor, London School of Economics (LSE)
Chris Alden Professor, London School of Economics (LSE) Dr Chris Alden is a teaches at the Department of International Relations of London School of Economics and Political Science and Co-Head of the Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE Ideas. He has published widely on China-Africa relations including China in Africa (Zed 2007), coedited China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008) and is co-author of The South in World Politics (Palgrave 2010) and South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy (Oxford 2003). He taught at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1990 to 2000. Professor Alden has held fellowships at Cambridge University, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Ecole Normale Superieure (Cachan), Paris; CERI, Paris; and Un ...
Abdelhak Bassou
Senior Fellow
Abdelhak Bassou is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. He is also an Affiliate Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. Bassou has had an extensive career in Moroccan National Security, where he served in various capacities including as head of the border division from 1978 to 1993. He was the former director of the Royal Institute of Police in 1998 and served as Head of Regional Security (Errachidia 1999-2003, Sidi Kacem 2003-2005) and as Central Director of General Intelligence from 2006 to 2009.   He holds a master's degree in political science and international studies from the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences in Rabat. His academic research delves into inte ...
Zhou Yuyuan
Senior Fellow, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies
...
El Mostafa Rezrazi
Senior Fellow
Dr El Mostafa Rezrazi is a professor of Crisis Management, and Security Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South who focuses on Terrorism, Security and East Asia studies. His area of Expertise covers Afro-Asian Affairs, Strategic & Security Studies, Terrorism, Extremism and Deradicalization, mainly from the view of Criminal; Legal and Forensic Psychology.  He got his Ph.D. in Regional & International Affairs from the University of Tokyo in 1998, and later a Doctorate from the University of Mohammed V on the Psychological dynamisms of Suicide Bombers (2014). He is the executive director of the Moroccan Observatory on Extremism and Violence, Director of the African Center for Asian Studies, Rabat. Currently, he is Visiting Professor at the Univ ...
John Yearwood
President and CEO, Yearwood Media Group
An award-winning multimedia journalist, John Yearwood is President and CEO of Yearwood Media Group, a global consulting and content creation firm. In his role as President/CEO of Yearwood Media, he advises companies seeking to do business in emerging markets, with a particular focus on Africa and Asia. In 2019, he was appointed honorary chair of the the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention, which convened 4,100 black journalists in Miami. He sits on several boards, including the Austria-based International Press Institute, where he is the former chairman. Former world editor of the Miami Herald. The World Desk won numerous awards under his leadership, including two McClatchy Company President’s Awards and the Arthur Ross Award for best coverage of Latin ...
Hu Yang
Assistant Professor, Institute of African Geography and Resource Environment, Yunnan Normal Universitry
...
Liu Litao
Associate Professor, School of International Studies, School of History, Nanjing University
...
Wei Guo
Professor, Departement of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Nanjing University
Wei Guo is a Professor in Social Demography and Social Policy at Nanjing University and a senior research fellow of the University’s Center of African Studies. He received a PhD in Demography from Peking University, China in 2012. His research is interdisciplinary, and draws on both the social and Behavioral sciences to improve our understanding of demographic and health outcomes. A significant focus of his research is on exploring the multiple determinants of health within the context of urbanization, migration and ethnicity. Prof. Guo has published over 50 articles in reputed journals, indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), and Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), such as Journal of Business Venturing ...
Wang Heng
Vice Director and Professor of the Institute of African Studies
...