Author: Xuan Liu, Benoit Lefèvre.

A series of bilateral and multi-lateral economic measures and policies that first appeared around the year 2000 have led to the emergence of close relationships between China and Africa. Since then, Chinese influence on urban Africa has evolved from mainly infrastructure projects to those that involve integrated local development, as represented by the six Chinese Special Economic Zones in Africa (CSEZAs) that were established between 2007 and 2009. In 2007, China overtook France to become the top ranked country of origin of international con - tractors in Africa. Intense competition has pushed some of the biggest Chinese contractors, including the capital-rich and political resource-rich Central State Owned Enterprises (CSOEs), to diversify their business operations by developing construc - tion related finance and management services, such as Build-Operate-Transfer projects and inte - grated local development. This has led to a trans - formation of the typical Chinese contractor, from a nomadic type of contractor involved in one-off business deals, to a middle to long-term local de - velopment stakeholder. In 2006, Chinese president Hu Jintao announced the building of three to five CSEZA. Today, there are six CSEZA in Africa, comprising one in Egypt, two in Nigeria, one in Zambia, one in Ethiopia and one in Mauritius. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), local governments and the China-Africa Development Fund (CADF) constitute the three pillars of the CSEZA concept. Except for the CSE - ZAs in Zambia Chambishi and Lusaka Subzone, Chinese officials responsible for the development of local Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in their own territories are all shareholders of the CSEZA developer company.