On the 22nd of January, 2021, the AEclipse International Research Project committee organised the yearly Winter Symposium. The theme of the Winter Symposium was “Chinese and European investments in Africa”, with a focus on the implications from these investments on the world economy.
During the first session we were joined by the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO). The FMO is a development bank based in The Hague that manages funds for the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs of the Dutch Government. They started with a lecture about their investment strategies in Africa. Following this they hosted a workshop involving a real-world investment decision they made, giving insights into the decisions you have to make when investing in developing countries.
In the second session we were joined by David Dollar, a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and leading expert on China's economy. David gave a lecture about Chinese investments in Africa, with a focus on the Belt and Road Initiative of the Chinese government.
We really enjoyed the event and would like to thank all the participants for attending and the FMO and David Dollar for all their insights!