Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Jumoke Oduwole. The African Continental Free Trade Area presents a major opportunity to boost Africa’s manufacturing, jobs and integration. However, experts say industrialisation requires infrastructure, strong institutions and policy consistency, lessons highlighted by China’s Shenzhen transformation, writes DAMILOLA AINA Africa’s ambition to transform the AfCFTA into a vehicle for industrial growth may ultimately depend on whether governments can replicate one of the most important lessons from China’s economic rise: infrastructure must come before incentives.
As countries across the continent establish Special Economic Zones to position themselves for AfCFTA opportunities, historical evidence has warned that tax waivers and policy declarations alone will not deliver industrialisation unless they are backed by infrastructure: reliable electricity, efficient transport systems, modern ports and coordinated long-term planning.
Shenzhen’s transformation story When former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping designated Shenzhen a Special Economic Zone in 1980, few imagined that the sleepy fishing settlement bordering Hong Kong would become one of the world’s leading manufacturing and technology hubs.
At the time, Shenzhen was home to an estimated 30,000 residents. China remained largely agrarian, economically isolated and constrained by the rigid state-controlled policies of the Mao Zedong era. Foreign investment was rare, industrial activity was limited and international trade was tightly controlled.
Experimenting with reform Yet Deng and other reform-minded leaders concluded that economic openness, foreign investment and export-oriented industrialisation offered the fastest route to lifting millions out of poverty and rebuilding the Chinese economy. Rather than opening the entire country to market reforms at once, Beijing adopted a cautious approach.
Between 1980 and 1981, it established four Special Economic Zones – Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen – as controlled environments where new economic policies could be tested before wider implementation. The zones became laboratories for reform, allowing China to experiment with private enterprise, foreign investment and export-led manufacturing while maintaining strong state oversight.
Building industrial ecosystems More than four decades later, Shenzhen stands as one of the clearest examples of successful infrastructure-led industrialisation. With a population exceeding 17 million people, hundreds of listed companies and a gross domestic product estimated at over $500bn, the city has evolved into a global centre for manufacturing, technology and innovation.
Yet Chinese researchers say the real lesson from Shenzhen was not simply tax incentives or other arbitrary waivers. It was infrastructure. Unlike many developing economies that rely heavily on tax exemptions and fiscal incentives to attract investors, China’s SEZ strategy focused aggressively on building roads, ports, electricity systems, rail lines, housing and industrial clusters before expecting large-scale industrial growth.
The Chinese government poured massive public investment into Shenzhen’s physical infrastructure, transforming it into a fully integrated industrial ecosystem capable of supporting exports, logistics and manufacturing efficiency. The government invested heavily in creating an ecosystem where businesses could operate efficiently and competitively.
Efficient governance matters Speaking during a chat with our correspondent on China’s economic transformation, Assistant Professor Sun Jingying explained that Chinese policymakers deliberately avoided sweeping reforms in favour of carefully managed experiments.