China-Africa Science, Technology & Innovation Collaboration

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT OR FULL PAPER HERE

ASSIST organising In association with

DSI/NRF SARChI Research Chair on Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa | University of Malaya North-South Research Centre (UMNSRC) Malaysia | Sino-French Innovation Research Centre (SFIRC), South-western University of Finance and Economics, China | Chinese Embassy in South Africa 

International Conference on

China-Africa Science, Technology & Innovation Collaboration

ON

9 - 10 October, 2022

At Future Africa Campus, South Africa

& ZOOM

In hybrid mode

Conference Coordinators: 

Prof. Mammo Muchie, Prof. Angathevar Baskaran and Prof. Mingfeng Tang

CONCEPT NOTE

Preface

The China-Africa relation is currently being discussed and various positive and negative claims are spread globally. The decision to focus on the science, technology and innovation collaboration between China and Africa is motivated by the fact that the primary relation of China with Africa is driven principally in building the infrastructure that contributes to economic development. 

Africa is also still having challenges inherited from colonial domination from the Western world. There is a lesson Africa must learn how China managed to deal with and respond with external rule over China. What has been truly extraordinary today is that China has gone through the long history of the difficult journey and now finally has attained a development status that has to be recognized and appreciated. Millions of Chinese have now come out of poverty. Unemployment is decreasing and inequality will decrease in the course of time by managing it with appropriate policy. What Africa should learn is how China achieved this status and managed how to deal with and respond to the global economy. 

The best gift China can give to Africa is to share frankly and honestly how the Chinese managed the difficult journey and achieved such a globally renowned success, especially building science, technology and innovation capabilities. The other important lesson from China is to relate with Africa entirely driven by the principle of mutual benefit. The gains and losses in the relationship have to be fully transparent, open, tangible, explicit, measurable and fully known. What China can try to do is to assist Africans to engage in an economic and political marathon race to be fully de-colonized now. The assistance that Africa has from China by promoting the win-win mutually beneficial relationship should be a role model and an example to remove the former colonial powers still continuing gaining while Africa continues losing which has not stopped.

This conference will make a major contribution to the understanding of different dimensions of the China-Africa Science, Technology and Innovation collaboration as most of the contributors are scholars who have submitted research papers for the book that the editors will publish in 2023 and dedicate it for the 60 years of the Organisation of African Unity and African Union (OAU/AU) from 1963-2023. Lessons from the on-going China-Africa Science, Technology and innovation collaboration will be the primary objective to generate ideas for all to learn by discovering the actual relations to draw the model for building real African unity, liberty and independence without external challenges. Africa and China share a legacy of external intervention and patterns of development influenced by external interests. China has demonstrated an alternative development pathway addressing uneven development with a dual circulation model for prioritizing domestic economic circulation and continuously welcoming international trade and investment. Growing economic, technological and scientific collaboration between Africa and China offers the opportunity to co-develop mechanisms to provide the skill base to move from discovery to invention, innovation and implementation to the benefit of both. 

Themes:

1. Evolution of China-Africa collaborations in science, technology and innovation

2. China-Africa collaboration in higher education

3. China-Africa research collaboration and training

4. China-Africa collaboration in agriculture and food security

5. China-Africa collaboration in environmental management and climate change

6. China-Africa collaboration in telecommunications

7. China-Africa collaboration in digital technologies

8. China-Africa collaboration in renewable energy

9. China-Africa collaboration in manufacturing

10. China-Africa collaboration in health sector

 

Deadlines:

Submission of Extended Abstract: 30 August 2022

Submission of Full Paper: 25 September 2022