Tin Hinane El Kadi is a political economy researcher. She is an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa department at Chatham House in London and the co-founder of the Institute for Social Science Research on Algeria. She is currently engaged in doctoral studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on the political economy of development, digital industrial policy, the knowledge economy, and China’s relations with the Middle East and North Africa.
Join Carnegie for a conversation about how local players have fared in three Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries—Algeria, Egypt, and Indonesia—in pushing Chinese technology firms to meet their developmental needs.
Developing countries looking to transform their digital economies often turn to foreign tech giants for technology upgrades and training for their own domestic tech workforce. Tin Hinane El Kadi explains why Egypt and Algeria chose Huawei and offers lessons for other developing countries negotiating with Chinese tech giants.
Algeria and Egypt pressed China’s telecom national champion Huawei for more value-added manufacturing and technology transfers. The company responded, but it ultimately improved its brand image without engaging in meaningful capacity building.