Debating global asymmetries at the 25th Humboldt Symposium Economy

Experts debated whether investment in developing countries supports partnership-building or leads to dependency.

On 20 May, Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge was invited to join the 25th Humboldt Symposium held at the Humboldt-Forum Wirtschaft e.V. in Berlin. Under the heading “What’s the cost of power?”, the forum asked whether investments in developing countries are a path towards partnership or dependency, building on the example of China. Following a keynote by Prof. Genia Kostka, Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge joined fellow researchers Dr Jürgen Karl Zattler and Dr Maximilian Mayer to discuss how Chinese investment strategies in Africa are distinct from those pursued by Western countries, how to draw a line between development-oriented investment and strategic power play, and how countries across Africa as well as Europe could position themselves in a changing global order. The panel discussion can be accessed here.