In its sixth year, the Russia-Africa Business Dialogue was held on June 16 at the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) with participation of both top-level Russian and African officials. The Russia-Africa Business Dialogue was initiated in 2016 as special platform to examine, review and discuss important existing topical issues especially those relating to trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Africa.
Most the discussions focused on the same questions that have been raised down the years, and in other different platforms. The key features here are that Russian officials reiterated their dreamy roadmap for cooperating with Africa, while African officials vividly narrated the existing nature and competitive conditions for investment in Africa. In terms of investnent, African speakers attempt to layout the potential sectors that are mostly in need of foreign corporate partners.
In terms of trade and industry, African speakers have loudly made it clear the primary and long-term objectives and benefits taking advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was signed in March 2018, came into force on January 1, 2021.
The AfCFTA provides a unique and valuable platform for businesses to access an integrated African market of over 1.3 billion people. The growing middle class, among other factors, constitutes a huge market potential in Africa. In order to have an indepth understanding of these, Russians must invest more in initial market research and development (R&D) collaborations, as basis for designing entry strategies, with their African partners.
By considering and accepting the opinions given by African speakers, Russians could be making the first practical step unto the real business landscape there in Africa. It is also important to take a comprehensive and broad-based look at emerging opportunities on the continent, study other foreign competitors. Therefore, Russians need to rethink how better to engage with African policymakers, businesses, civil society and the African diaspora in order to strengthen its strategic entrepreneurial relationships with Africa.
The June 16 Russia – Africa Business Dialogue, was dedicated to discuss cooperation priorities in the changing world. It brought together representatives of government, public, and business communities from both Russian and African sides. Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo, President of the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) participated. Delegations from African countries included Algeria, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Mali, Central African Republic and Zimbabwe. There were also African diplomatic representatives.
Professor Irina Abramova, Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences moderated the discussion. The discussions drew top-level speakers, who gave an insight into economic opportunities, challenges and threats to both Russia and Africa. The speakers, within the changing situation around the world, highlighted the prospects and possibilities of really transforming economic relationships between Russia and Africa.
More than that, the speakers and discussants noted the mutual interest in developing trade and economic ties between Russia and Africa, and identified food and energy security, new methods of financial settlements, cooperation in innovation and technology, health, education and culture, as well as cooperation within the integration alliances as priority areas.
Alexander Pankin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, extended the greetings from Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Despite the unprecedented sanctions and information warfare launched by the United States and its satellites, Russia manages to maintain the entire bilateral cooperation in working order, and to saturate it with a relevant substantive agenda, noted Lavrov, and reaffirmed that “in these difficult and crucial times the strategic partnership with Africa has become a priority of Russia’s foreign policy. Russia highly appreciates the readiness of Africans to further step up economic cooperation.”
Lavrov said: “It is in the interests of our peoples to work together to preserve and expand mutually beneficial trade and investment ties under these new conditions. It is important to facilitate the mutual access of Russian and African economic operators to each other’s markets and encourage their participation in large-scale infrastructure projects. The signed agreements and the results will be consolidated at the forthcoming second Russia-Africa summit.”
The price for one ticket to SPIEF costs 960,000 rubles ($16,600) per guest, and this year only about 2,700 business representatives from 90 countries registered – far below the 13,500 participants from 140 countries reported during the pre-coronavirus pandemic, according to SPIEF’s website.
Under the chosen theme ‘New Opportunities in a New World’ that reflects the changing global situations, the conference runs from June 15 to June 18 and marked the 25th year of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) since its establishment.
Over the last 24 years, the forum has become a leading global platform for members of the business community to meet and discuss the key economic issues facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world as a whole. Since 2006, has been held under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation.
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MD Africa Editor Kester Kenn Klomegah is an independent researcher and writer on African affairs in the EurAsian region and former Soviet republics. He wrote previously for African Press Agency, African Executive and Inter Press Service. Earlier, he had worked for The Moscow Times, a reputable English newspaper. Klomegah taught part-time at the Moscow Institute of Modern Journalism. He studied international journalism and mass communication, and later spent a year at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He co-authored a book “AIDS/HIV and Men: Taking Risk or Taking Responsibility” published by the London-based Panos Institute. In 2004 and again in 2009, he won the Golden Word Prize for a series of analytical articles on Russia's economic cooperation with African countries.
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On May 23, President Biden declared the official start of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Japan, ushering in a new phase in the Asia-Pacific conflict between the United States and China. China’s policy has taken on two distinct aspects since the Biden administration took office.
One example is Trump’s gradual shift from a full-fledged trade war with China to “precise decoupling” in crucial areas such as high technology. The economic conflict between China and the United States appears to be escalating. The temperature has dropped, but the trend of decoupling continues to increase; the second is to actively court European and Asia-Pacific friends and partners, and strive to construct a global supply chain, industrial chain, and value chain system that excludes China by enacting new international norms.
In the Atlantic, the United States and Europe announced the formation of the United States-EU Trade and Technology Committee (TTC) on June 25, 2021; in the Asia-Pacific, the Biden administration can abandon efforts to contain China by returning to the TPP (later renamed the CPTPP) and instead seek an alternative that requires only an executive order to take effect.
In this regard, President Biden initially floated the concept of establishing an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) during the East Asia Annual Summit in October 2021, and then disclosed further specifics in February 2022 until his visit to Japan in May to make the formal announcement. Begin the initiative. The establishment of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific economic framework is not only a legacy of Obama’s return to the Asia-Pacific strategic heritage, but also the first step toward establishing a global geoeconomic framework to constrain China.
Regarding the potential impact of IPEF on the economy and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, I believe it may be sensibly regarded from two perspectives. First, while IPEF’s negative impact should not be understated, its dividing effect on the Asia-Pacific region should not be overstated. On the day of the IPEF’s launch, Biden announced that seven ASEAN countries will join as founding members at the same time, which may exceed the expectations of many scholars and politicians, some of whom believe that ASEAN is shifting the traditional strategy of great power balance in favor of the US.
As a result, IPEF will hasten the fragmentation of the Asia-Pacific area. This point of view has merit, and it implies, to some extent, that ASEAN is willing to support the US’s efforts to create new international rules and so-called safer and more resilient global supply chains against China, thereby strengthening its relationship with the US. economic linkages and cooperation, and seize the opportunities that the decoupling of the US and Chinese value chains may bring to itself.
However, it would be premature to claim that ASEAN has entirely shifted in favor of the US. In reality, ASEAN’s option is still a classic great power balance approach. Since the beginning of the Asia-Pacific regional cooperation process in 1997, following the East Asian financial crisis, ASEAN has made full use of its geoeconomic and political strategic position, historically assuming the “centrality” of regional cooperation under the international pattern of competition between China, the United States, and Japan,” and becoming the “driver” to promote the final establishment of regional economic groups such as RCEP.
ASEAN is able to pursue a policy of great power balance in international and regional affairs because of its unique status and character. The seven ASEAN nations elected to join the IPEF, which appears to benefit the US, but it is more likely that the rapid nature of the construction of the Indo-Pacific economic framework, the ambiguity of the substance, and the optionality of the negotiating agenda have given countries a lot of leeway.
If it is totally devoted to the United States, ASEAN would lose its “central position” in regional cooperation and regional issues, as well as its current international stature. ASEAN countries will most likely have a firm grasp on this.
Second, the eventual impact of the IPEF on the Asia-Pacific economy and cooperation is dependent on China’s realistic policy decisions rather than the United States’ strategic plan, which is full of political calculations. The IPEF has established four pillars of trade, supply chain, clean energy infrastructure, and taxes and anti-corruption, but its essence is merely a “lack of a market” fundamental hollow endeavor, and the US market opening pledge is precisely what ASEAN nations are most concerned about.
As a result, unless the Biden administration addresses domestic anti-globalization sentiment and economic concerns, and then merges IPEF with existing free trade accords (such as the CPTPP led by Japan), it will be difficult for the US to create long-term collaboration with ASEAN nations. excitement. However, given the present political ecosystem in the United States, this is nearly impossible.
On the contrary, after decades of economic and trade cooperation and value chain integration, China, ASEAN, and other Asia-Pacific countries have formed a regional production and division of labor network with the world’s most complete industrial structure, most complex supply chain, and deepest interdependence. In comparison to the United States and Japan, China’s relevance to the ASEAN economy has steadily increased.
China surpassed Japan to become ASEAN’s top commercial partner in 2009. In that year, the three nations contributed for 11.6 percent, 9.7 percent, and 10.5 percent of ASEAN’s total import and export trade. Since then, the distance between China, the United States, and Japan has significantly expanded.
The entire trade volume between China and ASEAN will reach US$518.1 billion in 2020, significantly above the US$204.6 billion and US$308.9 billion between the US and ASEAN. As a result of this modification, the aforesaid proportions are now 19.4 percent, 7.7 percent, and 11.6 percent, respectively. The ever-expanding trade scale inevitably reflects into China’s enormous influence over ASEAN.
According to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore’s 2019-2022 State of Southeast Asia Survey, China has significantly greater influence in the area than the United States, both economically and politically. In the four surveys, for example, more than 70% of respondents believe China has the greatest economic influence, while less than 10% agree with the United States; more than 45 percent believe China has the greatest political and strategic influence, while only about 30% agree with the United States.
As a conclusion, in the face of IPEF competition from the United States, China may relax. China should have confidence in stabilizing cooperation with ASEAN as long as China continues to adhere to the policy of opening up to bring greater dividends to ASEAN, adhere to ASEAN’s “centrality” in regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and firmly implement the principle of peaceful coexistence and joint building of a community of shared destiny with ASEAN countries.
As the two most dynamic countries in the Asia-Pacific area, the dynamic Asia-Pacific supply chain and value chain will not break, and the process of economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region will not stagnate, as long as the industrial ties between China and ASEAN are not severed.
Under auspices of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and China holding the 14th Summit, it provides the platform to address emerging global and thorny regional problems. The BRICS member countries collectively represent about 26% of the world’s geographic area and are home to 2.88 billion people, about 40% of the world’s population.
What are the issues at stake: During the past two decades, new geopolitical confrontation as between democracy and authoritarianism, and unipolar and multipolar system, have partly appeared between the United States and Europe on one side and Russia and China on the other side. There other ccountries that are followers of the these distinctive groups. The group deeply dissatisfied about unipolar system and global hegemony throttled by the United States.
Despite the individual differences, BRICS members ultimately seek to consolidate its position, with a number of instruments at hand, in the development of the new global order and therefore have the following:
(i) Unified front and expansion of the group, demonstrate its effectiveness in addressing emerging tasks on regional and international stage. For instance in May, China suggested launching discussions of the issue that Argentina and Saudi Arabia had expressed interest in joining BRICS.
According to experts, other potential candidates include Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay who joined the BRICS New Development Bank last year. In addition, analysts point out that events held on the sidelines of the BRICS foreign ministers meeting involved representatives of Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigerian and Thailand.
A number of countries are already on the list as potential new members. The final positions is that this geopolitical configuration is in exploratory phases, undoubtedly meant to bring a new axis of Russia-China but inclusion of Mexico , Indonesia and Turkey has its own strategic baggage. The procedures have to be thoroughly examined and reviewed, the dialogue is of importance to further expand BRICS.
(ii) The question of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of the BRICS countries is being considered. In addition, the development of reliable alternative mechanisms for international settlements is being drawn up together with BRICS partners.
Russia’s financial messaging system is open for the connection of banks of the five countries. The geography of Russia’s Mir payment system is being expanded. The fact is that there are comprehensive measures directed at reducing the negative impact of sanctions and strengthening trade and investment ties with all interested states.
(iii) On fortifying the economic front is one key area for BRICS. Russia is feverishing cooperating with China and India. Trade among them has witnessed exponential growth, and Russia is set to make new legislations that could facilitate further, especially in the Central Asian region and within the Eurasian Union.
Closely relating to that Russia is advocating for expanding entrepreneurial freedoms, reducing administrative burdens, launching new preferential lending programs, and introducing tax and customs exemptions. While these aim at supporting Russia’s economy against raft of draconian sanctions, it would simultaneous help China, India and many Asia-Pacific countries that are ready to do mutual business with Russia.
Against these backdrop as briefly discussed above, BRICS can serve as an opportunity for the group to convince the world that it can be a viable financial option against Western-led institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Furthermore, combined together they possess a huge resources and only need to present a “clear-cut economic model” that ultimately be attractive and be replicated around the world. BRICS countries constitute 40 percent of the world’s population, and the group needs to engage in more interactive development processes especially the global south to get more clout as a serious global player.
China is holding the BRICS presidency in 2022. While strengthening economic, technological and scientific potential, the BRICS partners are ready to continue working on principles of respect to interests of each other, unconditional supremacy of international law, and equality of countries and peoples of the globalized world.
The 14th BRICS summit held in June, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa focused on the state of affairs and prospects of multifaceted cooperation within the group in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas. The summit touched upon pressing international and regional issues and are reflected in the summit’s final declaration.
Since its establishment, the BRICS success could be described as moderate. The group has a combined population of 3.23 billion and their combined GDP is more than US$23 Trillion. Historically, the first meeting of the group began in St Petersburg in 2005. It was called RIC, which stood for Russia, India and China. Then, Brazil and subsequently South Africa joined later in February 2011, which is why now it is referred to as BRICS.
Human needs in this world cannot be separated from 3 basic needs, namely shelter, clothing and food. Clothing is one of the things that humans will always use from birth to the end of their life no matter rich or poor because everyone needs clothes during their life. The industrial sector that produces this clothing is the garment industry, the garment industry is a company engaged in the manufacture of apparel for men and women, for all ages from baby to adults. Product from garment examples such as underwear, shirts, jeans, t-shirts, jackets, blouses, etc. and usually these garment products are mass-produced with the same model. Characteristics of garments produced by garments are the models of clothing that are made usually have the same shape, garment clothing generally uses standard sizes (S, M, L, XL) or numbering (Fitinline, 2019). There are lots of garment factories in each country and usually the factory has chosen the targeted market segment according to the product production. However, there are still many obstacles that can occur in this garment industry. Among other things, the rapid changes in the garment industry so that innovation must be carried out every time because fashion is always evolving, causing this industry have to adapt to the trends that are popular with the community, as well as high competition due to the many existing garment factories so that characteristics and expertise are needed to survive. However, when a garment factory can produce products with brands that have strong characteristics, Models that are trendy and comfortable to wear, the brand can quickly become a favorite of the community and with the right promotion can build branches in several countries.
If the garment industry is an industry that focuses on apparel, then above the garment industry there is an industry that is wider in scope, namely the textile industry is one of the manufacturing industry sectors that produces starting from raw materials to become materials that have a selling value such as yarn, cloth, and finished products made from textiles. The textile industry is very large because it consists of several materials. There are natural materials such as silk, wool, and cotton. And there are also synthetic materials, namely polyester, polypropylene, nylon. As for the process of making yarn into fabric, there are 3 types, namely woven, knitted and nonwoven. Woven itself is a fabric making technique that has the principle of combining threads lengthwise and transversely or making patterns that cross each other, while knitted fabrics are fabrics made with the principle of entangling threads that are intertwined with each other to form a circle or arch so that the threads can relate to each other. Then nonwoven is a fabric that is made without going through the woven and knitting process but with a special nonwoven machine. Fabrics made with different techniques have different purposes and functions depending on the use and purpose of use.
By seeing the importance of textiles in everyday life and because textiles are an industry that will always be needed, it is not surprising that the demand for textiles is always increasing from time to time. So that countries that have large textile production can make textiles one of the economic sources for state income. Here are 3 countries with the largest textile production in the world:
It’s not new anymore if China dominates the global textile market because this country is able to have an output reaching 52.2% of global textile production in 2019. Several factors that support China to become a giant ruling textile industry are due to low production costs, technological advances that as well as, considerable supply of raw materials. These things make China the largest textile producing country in the world. In addition to being the largest textile producer, China is also the country that exports the highest textiles. From Statista data, in 2020 China was the top global textile exporter with a value of around USD 154 billion. This figure of China’s exports is almost 43.5% of the total textile export market worldwide (Inda Susanti, 2022).
India occupies the second position as the largest textile producing country in the world, textile is one of the oldest industries in India and the development of this industry is always increasing from time to time. In India there is a division into 2 sectors. The first sector is an unorganized sector that still uses human labor and simple tools. Then the second sector is an organized sector, namely a sector that is more modern because it uses combined techniques and machines. India’s textile industry is estimated to be worth USD250 billion in 2019. According to the IBEF report, India’s State textile industry accounted for 7% of industrial output in 2018/2019. It contributes 2% to India’s GDP and employs more than 45 million people in 2018/2019 (Inda Susanti, 2022).
United States of America (USA)
America is in the 3rd position with the largest textile production. America managed to account for 5.3% of the output of global textile production in 2019. The biggest strength of textiles from the United States of America comes from the production of nonwoven fabrics, medical textiles and protective clothing. By combining advanced technology and innovation, the United States continues to grow with textile production increasing every year. Citing data from the US National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), the total value of shipments of US-made fibers and filaments, textiles and apparel amounted to approximately USD76.8 billion in 2018, up from USD73 billion in output in 2017 (Inda Susanti, 2022).
It is estimated that the demand for textiles in the future will continue to increase with the development of technology, there will be many new innovations that can be useful for human life. Especially in the garment and textile industry sector. As one of the basic human needs, it is estimated that the industry will remain stable and continue to increase, although sometimes there will be a decline but will return to a stable position. So literally the garment industry is part of the textile industry as well. However, the garment industry has a main focus on making apparel. Meanwhile, the textile industry has a wider scope because it processes from raw materials into finished materials that are ready to be reprocessed or can be sold directly without being reprocessed.
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