Drivers and Motives for Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments in Africa

In this paper, we set out to empirically test the degree of Chinese investments in Africa by systematically examining the explanatory value of existing theoretical motivations for FDI, for the 2003-2009 period. All else equal, we find that African countries enjoy a higher likelihood of Chinese OFDI than the rest of the world. Moreover, we find that Chinese firms invest in African markets for market seeking, natural resource seeking, and strategic asset seeking motives; hence the motives for Chinese FDI in Africa seem to match those of Western firms’ investments in global markets.