
Industrialisation in Africa: More a marathon than a sprint - ocjo
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21677633-there-long-road-ahead-africa-emulate-east-asia-more-marathon
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oblio
> Africa generates only 2% of the world’s demand.

The saddest part. Africa is a huge continent, the second biggest after Asia
(or the third biggest if you consider the Americas as 1 continent). It is 3
times bigger than Europe.

Still, as anyone who has ever played an online game with regions, digitally
it's almost like it doesn't exist. South Africa is the only African region
covered. North Africa is usually bundled with Europe. Everything else is not
even a blip on the radar.

I can't help but think of the benefits of getting hundreds of millions of
people into the modern age and be sad about that statement in the article :(

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danmaz74
With what criteria can you unite the two Americas as one continent, and
consider Europe separate from Asia?

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oblio
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Number_of_continen...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Number_of_continents)

I learned at school the 6 continent model presented there :)

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mattlutze
There's a lot of socioeconomic growth to be had as the many countries in the
continent accelerate to compete and thrive on the global economy, but I hope
we can understand reality on the ground isn't what all the infomercials (and
apparently game server coverage) suggest.

The good news is that these 1.17 Billion people[1] _are_ in the modern age.
There's many innovations coming out of Africa that should engender hope and
optimism, in banking, education, energy and agriculture to name a few sectors.

I hope we can be cautious about defining the continent by too narrow of a
standard when it comes to advancement and entrepreneurship.

1:
[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/world_population.htm](http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/world_population.htm)

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netcan
I'm not sure the economic ladder idea works anymore. The idea was that there's
a ladder for economic development starting with agriculture, then textiles
then clothes, electronics. Asian countries got on the ladder on different
points and followed it to certain extents.

But, I think this doesn't make much sense anymore. As the article mentions,
"cheap labour" doesn't get you as far these days.

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AnAfrican
>Rather than electrify the whole country, Ethiopia has concentrated on
providing power and transport links to its industrial parks.

That tends to be the tough part. Hard choices.

