China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and African Development

Abstract

To talk about Africa’s economic development without referring to infrastructure investments made by large Chinese corporations would be to deny the changes in international cooperation between the countries of the Global South. An economic and political project of the People’s Republic of China, whose strength base has been a Big Government and Big Bank accompanied by economic and financial reforms and a long-term imperial vision, the central hypothesis in Hyman Minsky’s work that underlines the importance of public companies and the exercise of a monetary and fiscal policy focused on employment creation with a significant expansion of capital exports. The Great International Financial Crisis (GIFC) strengthened under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) along with a social reproduction process of the State capital with a long-term global vision explains the great Chinese corporations. In this essay, we will demonstrate the positioning and growth of large Chinese corporations, interrelated with profound economic and financial reforms in China since the 1980s. Firstly, the focus will be the investments of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) globally; secondly, there will be a brief account of the investment projects on the African continent; lastly, we will pay particular attention to the institutional investors participating in the CRCC.

Keywords:

• China Railway Construction Corporation
• Big Bank and Big Government
• institutional investors
• globalization
• Africa

JEL Classification Codes:

• B50
• O1
• F02
• F20
• F54
• F65

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Mutual funds are “a portfolio of bonds and/or other income vehicles dedicated to a specific investment strategy or asset class” (BlackRock n.d.).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alicia Girón

Alicia Girón is Emeritus Researcher of the Economic Research Institute and Coordinator of the University Program Studies on Asia and Africa of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. This research is a part of the “Financial Markets, Capital flows and Credit Risks” (IN303024, DGAPA UNAM) project. We appreciate Adheli Galindo and Giuseppe Alvarado statistical data research, Andrea Reyes’s reading Spanish version and Libertad Figueroa’s English translation.