China's town and village enterprises and its implications for Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The successful development of China's town and village enterprises (TVEs) has significantly absorbed enormous rural labour surplus during the agricultural transformation and the process of urbanisation between 1984 and 2014. TVEs played an important role in poverty reduction and increasing income for rural labours in China, when markets were dysfunctional and institutions were changing during the 1980s and 1990s. Assessments have concluded that Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has similar challenges and conditions with respect to agricultural transformation and managing urbanisation to those of China in the 1980s-1990s. This research uses interviews and case studies gathered mainly in China in 2014. The research finds that dramatic development of TVEs helped China to get rid of the development dilemma of a dualistic economic structure in rural and urban areas, which can bring valuable lessons for SSA. The definition of TVEs in this article has been extended to inclusive local enterprise organisations. This research suggests feasible policies to promote local social enterprises with inclusive development entrepreneurship in SSA.