Colonialism to Neo-Colonialism: The Chinese Use of Foreign Direct Investment and the Case of Pakistan

The practice of neo-colonialism was initially introduced by the United States through the establishment of institutions like the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank) and continuing the legacy, China soon took over and had been using FDI to further its neo-colonial agenda in various parts of the world, including Pakistan. This research explores the history of colonization in the Sub-Continent and traces the origins of neo-colonization with a focus of the United States as a pioneer of the practice and China as the contemporary neo-colonizer. The research traces the transition from colonialism to neo-colonialism and examines the case of Pakistan as a victim of neo-colonialism, presenting the case based on evidence. The paper concludes that neo-colonialism is indeed colonialism with a changed outlook and proposes certain recommendations for Pakistan to minimize the impact of Chinese colonialism.

The Bretton Woods Institutions and Economic Reform in Africa

The activities of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (together comprising the Bretton Woods Institutions) in Africa have continued to generate questions about the impact of economic reforms on democratization and economic growth. The Bretton Woods Institutions strongly believe that economic growth contributes significantly to poverty alleviation efforts and hence generates improvements in living standards, particularly in developing countries, including those in Africa. In the mid-1980s, as many African countries struggled to service their external debts and qualify for additional credit to provide services to their citizens and promote economic growth and development, the World Bank and the IMF offered to help them. However, the Bretton Woods Institutions conditioned their assistance on the willingness of each African country to undertake necessary structural reforms, which included a reduction in the public sector, devaluation of the national currency, deregulation of the foreign trade sector, and more reliance on markets for the allocation of resources. These aid programs, which came to be known as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) consisted of conditional lending to African countries in economic crisis. At this time, the World Bank felt that the effectiveness of its development programs in Africa and other regions of the world was being undermined by bloated and dysfunctional bureaucratic structures and governmental systems that were hostile to the market generally and entrepreneurship in particular. The World Bank’s desire to condition the extension of credit to African countries on institutional reforms was supposedly to improve bureaucratic efficiency, as well as economic performance, and enhance the effectiveness of the World Bank’s projects in these countries. Thus, the IMF and the World Bank emerged in the 1990s as major players in efforts to improve economic growth and development in Africa. The SAPs were expected to improve macroeconomic performance, produce rapid economic growth, achieve economic diversification, and provide each African country with the resources that it needed to confront poverty and improve national living standards. In fact, in 1994, the World Bank expressed a lot of optimism about the impact of SAPs on African economies. However, many critics have argued that SAPs had virtually no positive impact on the macroeconomic performance of African economies and, instead, created a series of internal political and economic contradictions that have continued to haunt the continent to this day. As a result, critics say, many countries that implemented SAPs continue to suffer from high levels of poverty and became more dependent on external financial resources (such as loans, development aid, and food aid) than before they got involved with the Bretton Woods Institutions and their adjustment programs.

Modulating corruption and money laundering through the Bretton Woods Institutions: the case of less developed countries (LDCs)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to readily bring to the fore, the vital dimension that the Bretton Woods Institutions, exemplified by both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, has brought into the global economic template to dampen the momentum of corruption and money laundering through the impact of their activities in less developed countries (LDCs). The original mandate of the two institutions was to address the balance of payments and developmental issues of countries as a result of the devastating effects of the Second World War. However, this could not be achieved in an atmosphere engulfed with corruption and money laundering. As a result, it became necessary for them to intervene albeit through direct or indirect mechanisms demonstrated by the use of soft law bodies such as Basel Committee on Banking Supervisors (BCBS) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Design/methodology/approach This paper relies on primary legal documentations such as BCBS, FATF, articles of both IMF and World Bank to mention but a few in the analysis. The paper is doctrinal. Findings There is undoubtedly glaring indications that through the efforts of both IMF and the Bank, tremendous inroad has been made in LDCs in modulating the tempo of the malaise. Research limitations/implications This paper is addressed to the authorities that are concerned about the scourge of the malaise and the impact to pay more attention to the mechanisms of soft laws used by the Bretton Woods Institutions to get their anti-corruption message through in LDCs. Originality/value This lies on the fact that the efforts of both IMF and the Bank have awakened the importance that should be attached to some soft laws in curtailing the issues.

7. Global economic and trade governance

This chapter addresses the intersection of international law and international politics as it relates to global trade. To study global economic governance is to study international law, international relations, and international political economy (IPE) all at once. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to IPE, a discipline which seeks to understand the workings of the global economy in its political context. It examines the relationship between economic globalization and state sovereignty, before turning to the construction of the postwar global economic order, with a focus on the Bretton Woods institutions. The postwar global economic order has often been described as ‘liberal’ by virtue of its underlying assumptions and the ideological convictions of its framers. Importantly, the postwar liberal order was built by, and for, the developed countries of the Global North-a fact that has informed critiques emanating from the developing countries of the Global South. The chapter then assesses global trade governance, analysing the structure, powers, and role of the World Trade Organization.

Naira - Yuan Diplomacy: A Pathway for Unlocking Nigeria’s Manufacturing Sub-Sector Potentials

The fountain head for weighing one unit of a domestic currency in-terms of another within an international framework is rooted in the famous Gold Standard proposed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs). This brand of thought had since been practiced and experienced in numerous trade ties that Nigeria had had with China. Like other bilateral agreements, it sets to re-define and deepen the two countries’ economic space. Thus, this paper shed lights on Naira - Yuan Diplomacy as a Pathway for Unlocking Nigeria’s Manufacturing Sub-Sector Potentials.The manufacturing industries are engines of economic prosperity. Facilitation of job creation space and poverty reducing strategies are core values in manufacturing too. This paper conclusively presume that the exchange rate pass-through mechanism can transmit price increase and macroeconomic instability from China and supply shocks to the Nigerian economy (especially from manufactured products) when adequate provisions are not domestically taken. Furthermore, the Naira-Yuan diplomacy will increase imports from China thereby increase her foreign income since Nigeria will be spending more on Chinese manufactured products, hence, increase the national income of China. The policy implication of this finding is that the net exports of China will rise faster and add to her expansion of domestic income instead of Nigeria. The paper therefore calls upon Nigeria to be proactive in ensuring a stable trade and exchange rate policies to deepen technical innovation for local manufacturing tools to boost output rather than depending more on China. Received: 18 August 2020 / Accepted: 9 October 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021

Arturo Escobar’s Ethnographic Model and the Discourse of Development in the Global South

The thrust of this paper will be to succinctly discuss the ethnographic model propounded by Arturo Escobar, which had been projected towards the understanding of development both in its theoretical and practical approaches among societies of the Global South. This analysis, will first examine the issue of development as seen from the template of market forces, which the Bretton Woods institiutions had subjected developing Global South societies to, in the quest for development. They (Bretton Woods institutions) emphasised economism, which is a uni-dimensional idea and approach to development that gives primacy to individualism, market liberalisation, and material aspect of development at the expense of culture of the people. On this, Escobar argues that societies of the Global South should be allowed to pursue their own development as they deem fit without the influence(s) of the Global North. Hence, it is expected that this paper will initiate a new understanding of how development should be understood and practised, from the stand-point of Arturo Escobar, among the societies of the Global South. This is projected towards the acceptance of localised understanding of models, which will solve the problems of the people that want to be ‘developed’ in accordance with and to their plans and interests.

Urban Design, Space Economy and Survival in the City: Exploring Women’s World of Work in Kumasi, Ghana

The nature of urban economic design in Kumasi, Ghana, is often reflective of neoliberal economic policies prescribed by Bretton Woods institutions during the economic reforms of the 1980s. The economic structure, which is characterized by uncertainties of formal jobs, has triggered people’s ingenuity to engage in novel occupations. One economic activity that has gained popularity in Kumasi is vending of roasted traditional food (RTF) by women. This chapter explores how women have used vending of RTF to overcome years of acute austerity in the “paid” job market. It concentrates on the economic, spatial, and social networks that sustain this informal activity. Drawing on multiple data sources, the results confirm how the structure of the city space has consigned RTF vendors to obscurity, yet their activities are responding to the economic realities of time—increasing urbanization, limited job opportunities, and accumulation of poverty. As a survival strategy, the vendors have developed social connections with clients and made their place comfortable in order to claim their rightful place in the urban space economy. We conclude that given their contributions, the vendors must be appreciated as agents of change and part of the urban system.