South-South cooperation and the prospects of global economic balancing : a study of regulatory frameworks of Nigeria-China relations
Abstract
The global economy has overtime been characterised by imbalances which resulted from technological and economic advancement of a region over another thereby leading to its classification of the World economy into the North and the South, Core and Periphery, developed and developing countries. The North implies the developed countries while the South implies the developing countries which have been colonised at one time or the other. This classification is of major concern to this study as most of these developing countries are in Africa. The gap created by this classification has been the concern of political and economic analysts and has therefore become a global issue. To this end, several efforts have been geared towards bridging the gap between the North and the South in order to achieve an economically and technologically balanced economy such as Bandung Conference, Lome convention among others but these have yielded little or negligible result as the dependence of the South on the North has continually deepened. The heads of government of the developing countries therefore saw the need to form alliance among them having realised the effect of dominance of the developed countries in all areas of their economy. This concept is known as South-South Cooperation which explains the collaborative effort among the countries of the South in order to achieve development. It involves the exchanging of resources technology and knowledge between developing countries also known as countries of the Global South. This has overtime been successful in decreasing dependence on aids programs of developed countries and in creating a shift in the international balance of power. This study therefore centres on the prospect of attaining the much desired economic and technological balanced economy through the concept of SouthSouth Cooperation which if judiciously implemented will lead to a developed South and if concurrently developed with the North will ultimately lead to a globally balanced economy. This is analysed within the context of China and Nigeria as a prototype of South-South Cooperation as both are developing countries. Even though this study has identified the concept of South-South Cooperation as a verifiable tool to developing the South, it has not failed to identify the challenges embedded in the application of the concept which have been analysed in the study. In order to explore this, this study has identified the concept of dumping as a major clog in the relationship between China and Nigeria which has inhibited the win-win benefit that ought to be the outcome of the relationship. The methodology employed in the study includes both qualitative and quantitative method of research analysis. Many scholars have criticised this relationship and opined that it is not in any way different from the North-South Cooperation and that China being a technologically advanced country of the South but China has continually emphasised that it is a developing country with the major aim of achieving a win-win position in the relationship. To analyse this, the relationship has been explained within the field of study of political economy. This study also explored the regulatory frameworks under which China operates in Nigeria and why the relationship has not achieved the desired result. The study has maintained that the concept of South-South Cooperation is a verifiable tool in achieving a globally balanced economy. The findings from the statistical analysis affirm that the relationship, even though beneficial is not without its challenges which are identified in the study. The subsequent chapters will look into the structure of the relationship, the theories that explain the relationship and the regulatory frameworks that guide the relationship between the countries under study.
Collections
- Humanities [2671]