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China does more, India does better, says former ambassador Gurjit Singh on investments in Africa

beijingwalker

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China does more, India does better, says former ambassador Gurjit Singh on investments in Africa​

Gurjit Singh highlighted that India offers a freer market than China.
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New Delhi: Gurjit Singh, former Indian ambassador to Germany, on Saturday (May 7), said that even though China invests more than India in African nations, it is India that does it better among the two.

Speaking at Zee Media’s Learning XP platform, Singh said that India focuses more on private sector investments, shielding the nations from a possible debt trap.

Singh also highlighted that India offers a freer market than China. However, he was also quick to point out that China perhaps provides a more efficient market to companies planning to invest there, in comparison to India.

Further, he noted that despite all the indifferences, China still remains the largest trade partner for India, with the US in second place. Notably, in the first quarter of 2022, India’s bilateral trade with China soared 15% year-on-year to a record $31.96 billion, according to the data released by China.

However, India’s imports jumped 28% from the first quarter of 2021 to $27.69 billion. On the other hand, the exports slumped 26% to $4.87 billion, signalling an increased dependence on Chinese goods. Also On India’s role in South Asia, Singh said that India should carry the weight of neighbouring nations, barring Pakistan. However, he pointed out that the government shouldn’t go overboard when it comes to helping out nations in economic crises. “If we need to counter China, we have to bear the financial costs,” he added.

 
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China has a much larger global footprint than India - that much is 💯 percent! And China has taken the lessons from the Japanese in the 60,70,80 and applied it to its manufacturing hubs, industry, academia.

I have grown up in a time when middle class families in Pakistan of an older generation would have Grunding televisions sets - despite Japanese National Electonics available as people trusted “German” Manufacuting and quality:

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Grunding TV set.

Then in the late 70’s to early 80’s JVC, Sanyo and other brands from Japan became popular in Pakistan because of their affordability and reliability including stylish designs:
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The from the 80’s to 90’s Japanese technology embedded itself in every home - everyone wanted Japanese electronics from televison sets to Seiko wristwatches.

Similarly China entered the Pakistani electronics market with Nobel - a very cost effective television - sadly this brand didn’t see a lot of initial interest from Pakistan until 2005 - I still have my original Nobel TV which works just as good today as it did back then:

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China went through a similar tumultuous penetration into the Pakistani Market. When Chinese mobile phones first were introduced to the Pakistani market - they were of frankly poor construction and bad quality speakers - but they filled a niche - the provided the working class person to buy a fully functioning mobile phone at the fraction of the price of a Nokia at 1100 rupees.

The Chinese wholesale dealers would come to Pakistan and run focus groups on what average consumers wanted - featured like cameras, larger screens, multi media features and slowly they introduced mobile phones running on Os similar to Symbian to rival old giants such as iMATE Jama and Sony Erricson:
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The Chinese introduced new gimmicky featured including TV tuners - but the quality of the housing, battery life and camera sensors were still an issue.

The Chinese learned from this again as they continued to improve on what the market wanted and they did focus groups globally and produced smartphones with touchscreens etc etcZ

And then sometime in the 2000’s entered Huawei, Haier and Zte and the rest as we know is history. Now Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo are household names that rival iPhone and Samsung in desirability, popularity and market share.
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The Huawei store in Karachi.

A similar story here I can recount from my professional job where Search and Rescue Equipment in Pakistan would normally only be Hilti, husqvarna etc.

Since 2010 more and more Chinese products are used in the police, fire and rescue sector.

Last year we replaced our rescue helmet from Camp USA to the Chinese made CAPF F2 rescue helmet:
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Today - Chinese electronics, hardware and technology can be found everywhere from home air conditioning through to ZTE micro switches and DSLAMS in mobile phone main switching units.

India has a long, very long way to catch up to China.
 
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