The political economy of Africa's links with Asian Financial Centres: Focus on Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong

Le LabSem du CERI 

2025

Variations autoritaires

This session is jointly organized with the Research Group on International Political Economy (RGIPE)

Speaker: Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, CERI-Sciences Po / CNRS

Discussant : Jérôme Sgard, CERI-Sciences Po / CNRS

Offshore financial centres (OFCs) - jurisdictions that cater to non-residents by providing
secrecy, low or non-existent taxation, light regulation, and easy incorporation rules - are the
hidden infrastructure of the global economy. The UN estimates that $88.6 billion per year
leave Africa in the form of capital flight, with much of it routed through, or ending up in, OFCs. A
historical study of Africa’s offshore links would have rightly focused on western
jurisdictions. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, however, Africa’s offshore links have
diversified. This is notably the case of Asian jurisdictions and fits the wider pattern of
deepening Asian-African connections since the turn of the century. These offshore dynamics
remain poorly researched despite their significance for Africa’s changing position in the
global economy.

This presentation will focus on Africa’s offshore links with Dubai, Hong Kong, and
Singapore. Dubai looms largest as de facto global headquarters for African corporate
registration and location of choice for African elites as well as foreigners doing business with
Africa. The world’s third largest financial centre and major base for the offshore renminbi
trade, Hong Kong is primarily a gateway for Chinese investors into Africa. Singapore is a
financial services and commodity trading hub with strong Africa connections but only a
limited presence by African high-net-worth individuals. Despite the importance of the
development discussed in this presentation, I argue that it is nothing like an alternative
“Asian offshore system”. This is rather the same densely interwoven and multijurisdictional
offshore world, further diversified across new geographies, but functioning in strikingly
similar manners. Crucially, the world class services the Asian OFCs host are often proffered
by the same (western) blue-chip firms that have long experience of the offshore world.