Chapter 1: Introduction

 

1.1 Context of this Research

Development economists proposed various advanced strategies for the econom ictransformation of the less developed countri es. The development of the manufactureindustry through its industrialization is one those strategies. Som e of the giveninstructions are theoretical in nature while others are oriented towards policy. All saidand done, the industrialization of sm all underdeveloped economies is still veryproblematical, especially when it com es to the development of African econom ies.Each decade sees the developm ent of new i ncentives, new strateg ies and newopportunities. As stated by the United Nations Publication (2014) on Dyna micIndustrial Policy in Africa, th e latter has experienced ro bust growth over the pastdecade driven by the rising commodity prices and dom estic demand. Though anamelioration of macroeconomic management and stronger trade and investment tieswith emerging economies has been noticed, A frican countries still need to transformtheir economic structures to gen erate inclusive and sustainable growth. Thistransformation needs to undergo a deep and real industrialization as market failure isone of the most important reasons for the poor performance of the industry.Industrialization is a distinctive characteristic to evaluate the economic developmentas it is known that econom ic development encompasses a shift from agriculture toindustry and further from industry to services. Overall the term s of trade are m oreprofitable for m anufacturing goods than for raw materials, so the significance ofindustrialization (Rodrik, 2004). Throughout the past m any countries among whichthe cases of the United S tates and Japan, have illustrated the need to c atch up withindustrialization and whenever possible, within a rather short period of tim e.Nowadays, both developed and developing nations see industrialization as a practicaltool to guarantee the sustainability of their respective nation’s economic growth.Though, examples like China m ake it clear th at industrialization is most likelyachievable for those countries or regions that haven’ t done so till now (for variousreasons), this ‘Chinese route’ seems irrelevant to a lot of countries, particularly formost small economies such as the form er African colonies. Ar guably, those formercolonial possessions do not seem to be able or ready to realize the take-off towards aheterogeneous industrialization that could lead to an im provement of the servic esector.

........

 

1.2 Justification for the Proposed Research

This research is m otivated by the need to provide a new pattern for theindustrialization of small economies. Cameroon is a practical case of a small economyin the developing world. The rise of China’s capital appears to be one of the solutionsfor the funding difficulties of many small non industrialized economies.During the last three to five decad es, many small developing economies, mainly inAsia and in Latin America, have successfully exhibited dramatic growth while Africahas largely remained stagnant. This success has been driven by different strategiessuch as imports substitu tion, manufacturing exports, national m arkets opening,implementation of favorable trade and exch ange rate policies, and provision of asound and stable governm ent that inspired investment and secured property rights.Conversely, Africa has failed to put the full package in place, and this has resulted in amanufacturing sector whose contributi on to both GDP and export shares issignificantly below the developing country p eers. Africa’s industrial base is not asrobust as theory suggests it should be.The contribution of Africa to the world trade is far below its potential, around 3.3 percent, with exports dom inated by natural reso urces such as oil, m etals and minerals.Intra-African trade is driven by the excha nge of industrial products more so thanAfrica’s trade with the rest of the globe. This is worth noting, given the rise ofservices shared in developing countrie s GDP. Despite the buoyant extension ofAfrica’s service exports (especially the exports of commercial services which havenearly tripled in the last decade), we must keep in mind that it is a continent he avilydepending on agriculture. The increase of agricultural income will sustain povertyreduction and create a high demand for industrial products.

........

 

Chapter 2: Literature Review

 

2.0 Introduction

“For real and sustained development there is no substitute for industrialization”(O’Brien, 1987). Throughout the history of the evolution of developed countries, theabove declaration of O’Brien is verifie d. Since the industrial revolution from theUnited Kingdom and its extension till m any other parts of the world, m any countriesused they comparative advantage as a power to boost industrialization. Following thesuccessful England case, indus trialization became a subject to study with plentyreasons justifying its popularity and its repl ication anywhere else around the globe.The spontaneity of the first industrialization calls for a need to deeply understand thereal root of this transform ation. Is it th e government and or other institutionalarrangements or the m arket or the prevailing resources an d social mechanisms thatpromoted it? During th e last five decades, the East Asia in dustrialization “miracle”took place and th e “less successful” indus trialization in Latin America basedrespectively on the Export Oriented Indu strialization (EOI) and the Im portSubstitution Industrialization (ISI) variety also happened.One of the significant characte ristic of industrialization is that a share of a countrynational income comes from the increase of the manufacturing sector output, thus theaccretion of the share of labor in the industry which will create a shift of the economyfrom the agricultural state to the industrial state (Eatwell, 1987). This change requirescontinuing to invest and to enhance a t echnological progress for the production (D ’Costa, 1999). Conventionally, industrialization can be ca rried out following threemain paths: via by-product of wealth in a dynamic primary sector, following the ISIsteps, or according to the EOI one. Acco rding to the m odel presented by Murphy ,Schleifer and Vishny, the first path is a re sult of the augmentation of the productivityin the primary sector (agriculture) or a high dem and for domestic manufacturingproducts due to the explosion of exports le ading to the rise of income (Murphy andal., 1987). The idea of ISI is to cut down imports to bring up domestic production as asubstitute of the shortage. 

.......

 

2.1 Industrialization

With respect to the history of developm ent, industrialization refers to a conceptevidenced to be the unique pathway to a void international boundaries and to realizeutmost economic development. The term industrialization signifies a structural changethat underdeveloped states pass through to move out fr om an agricultural basedeconomy to an industrial based one, follow by deep transformations of the society(Kuznets, 1973). Former developm ent economists witnessed structural dif ferencesamong the main sectors of an economy and set up models of dual economy. The dualeconomy model consists of a high producti vity one or “capitalist”, and a lowproductivity one also referred as “subsiste nce’. With respect to this, developm entrequires a shift of labor from the low productivity sector to the high productivity one.Beside the productivity, the m anufacturing sector is m arked by the econom ies ofscale. The economy of scale sim ply implies that by lowering the unit costs, we canhave more output. In turn, the growth of the output of the m anufacturing sectorimpacts the whole econom y growth by asso ciating the backward linkages to th eforward linkages of non industrial outputs. The increase of output requires m oreadvanced technology, thus innovation (Lewis, 1954; Fei an d Ranis, 1964; Cornwall,1977).

.......

 

Chapter 4: Industrialization of Cameroon.....79

4.1 Brief Overview of the Industrialization inAfrica...........79

4.1.1 Industrialization Challenges ofAfrican countries...........80

4.1.2 Common Industrial Models inAfrica.........82

4.2 Cameroon Industrialization Policies..........84

4.3 Industrialization Development Strategies for Cameroon...........87

4.4 Conditions or Determinants for the Industrialization of Cameroon......93

4.5 Industry of Cameroon.........99

4.6 Conclusion..............102

Chapter 5: China and the Industrialization of Cameroon.............104

5.1 China and the African’s Industrialization..........104

5.2 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation......105

5.3 One Belt, One Road Initiative......108

5.4 China’s Involvement in the Cameroonian Economy....109

5.5 China’s Impact on the Cameroonian Industrial Production.....111

5.6 Conclusion.............114

 

Chapter 9: Discussion and Conclusions

 

9.1 Introduction

This thesis analyzes specifi cally the agro-industry in Ca meroon. The first goal is toevaluate the contribution of the sector to the dynam ic of the industrialization ofCameroon, thus to the econom ic development of the whole nation. The dynam icpresented is from primary commodities processing to a newly industrialized country .Secondly, the research aims to assess the structure of the industry using a comparisonbetween the enterprises en joying foreign funds and the wholly Ca merooniancapitalized enterprises. The general approach includes th e history of the country’ seconomic development and industrialization in respectively the third chapter and thefourth chapter.The whole agro-industry is assessed base d on the secondary da ta gathered fromvarious sources including the National In stitute of S tatistics of Cam eroon, thepublication of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry Mines and Craft (CCIMA) ofCameroon, Cameroon Employer Board (Groupement Inter Patronal du Cameroun, inFrench) and the respective enterprises’ websites. Additionally, the responses of theonline questionnaire sent to enterprises engaged in agro-manufacturing activities bringout more insight about the development and the functioning of the sector. The resultsand the analysis of these findings are shown in the seventh and the eighth chapters.

........

 

conclusion

 

Either export-led industrialization or res ource-based industrialization needs to beassessed in view of comparative research studies so that the comprehension of thestrategies should be very clear . Other small economies in the developing worldwhether in Africa, Asia or Latin America also possess significant agro-manufacturingindustries. Large emergent economies like China and India, in term s of market size,due to their population are m ain consumers of agro-products. Even if those twonations are top m anufacturers of agro-p roducts in the world, they remain aspotentially huge markets that import such goods as well. The studies done in the caseof other sm all developing econom ies as regards the developm ent of theiragro-industry can give a precise vision of their dynamic of industrialization.

..........

References (abbreviated)