By Eric Claude Olander from The China Africa Project
Opinion leaders in 12 French and Arabic speaking African countries look less favorably upon France and China, according to the findings of the third annual survey conducted by the French Council of Investors in Africa (CIAN), an independent business association. China fell 9 points this past year to 22% overall and France slipped to seventh place overall among those foreign countries with the best overall image.
The survey’s director Mohamed El Kalchi noted that the U.S. and Germany, who both topped the poll, did not seem to suffer any reputational damage in the 12 countries polled over their mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.