FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Professor Geraci Explains How ‘China Can Help Italy in Africa’
June 5, 2018 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Radio Radicale on May 28, Professor Michele Geraci has reported that both Lega leader Matteo Salvini and M5S co-founder Beppe Grillo have asked for his advice and shown interest in different aspects of Chinese policy. Salvini is more concerned with what Geraci calls “the five pillars” of Chinese development, whereas Grillo is more interested in rural development.
“I’ve been suggesting, for some time now, cooperation with third parties in Africa, where China is investing and where I think Italy should be part of the system; other countries are already doing it.”
In an article posted on his website yesterday, Geraci explains that
“China can help Italy in Africa. Today, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is in Sicily to visit secure centers for refugees, in order to understand what kind of initiatives the government should implement and carry on in the next months. How can we stabilize migratory flows from Africa? China, I think represents one possible solution, perhaps one of the few ones.
“One of the five fundamental pillars of the Chinese economic success (GDP growth of 9.5% per year for 40 consecutive years, unprecedented in the history of mankind) is a model based on a) building infrastructure and urbanization; b) welcoming migrants.
“China is trying to stabilize the economic situation in Africa, not because it is Santa Claus, but because it has economic interests. Since China started investing in Africa over the past 15 years, the poverty rate in the continent has started to decrease from 50% to about 40%.
“In fact today, China is the only country in the world, which is able to simultaneously mobilize capital and human resources, raw materials and even know-how. In other words, China has greater knowledge than any other country in the world on how to manage 1 billion people, on how to manage the migration of 1 billion people, on how to manage urbanization for 1 billion people. If we are lucky, China might be able to replicate its successful model in Africa as well. Italy can play an active role alongside China in Africa, helping China to ‘help people in their own countries,’ which is not a slogan but the reality of this new, globalized world.
“Western countries by using, what I call, the Bob Geldof model based on charity, didn’t bring significant benefits to African countries, where poverty has increased, whereas, in China, it has decreased by 800 million people. These statistics are factual and prove that we shouldn’t really have any superiority complex vis-á-vis China.”
