Technology transfer and technological spillovers from Chinese tech giant in North African countries: the case of Huawei in Algeria

Sino-North African relations intensified at the turn of the century with a significant growth in trade, investment, and turnkey contracts. While economic exchanges did not initially break patterns of unequal exchange, since 2013, Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has signalled a qualitative shift in China’s engagement with the region and the rest of the continent. China has committed to increase investments in high value-added sectors, promote research and innovation and to boost cooperation in science, technology and research with countries across North Africa in the digital sector in particular which is emerging significantly in China-North African partnerships. China is becoming ever-more important actors in North Africa through the Digital Silk Road (DSR), the digital component of the BRI. North African governments see the Digital Silk Road as an opportunity to help bridge the digital divide and bolster their own national efforts to build digital economies, create jobs for the millions of unemployed university graduates and ultimately succeed in effective technology transfer mainly through training and spillover. Drawing on the rich literature on technology transfer and innovation in developing countries and an extensive field work conducted through observant participation methodology in the Algerian industrial sector, this chapter aims at assessing the developmental implications of the Digital. Using the case of the giant chinese tech company Huawei, it will attempt to unpack dynamics between Chinese and local state agencies, firms and universities, and assess the resulting outcomes in terms of technology transfer.