Are African Countries Learning At All?
Developing countries, usually considered ‘latecomers’ in development, can create learning opportunities for themselves through channels of knowledge diffusion and technology transfer such as international trade and foreign direct investment. For instance, ownership-specific advantages of multinational corporations, which make up the majority of large corporations in developing countries, could spill over to the domestic environment through consciously built learning relationships (in forms of forward and backward linkages). Mauritius is an African success story of structural transformation resulting from export-oriented FDI stimulated through the creation of special economic zones. Now that foreign investment promotion has become central to the industrial policies of most African economies, it is important to evaluate how much of the positive trends in FDI inflows are associated with local learning and improvements in local ways of doing things. Put differently, is FDI to