Abstract

In terms of external trade, or simply of growth, China seems to have widened its advance on India. This can be explained by the impulsion of radical reforms in China, by the role played by the Chinese diaspora, or by the actual growth model that China chose. India and China will widen their influence in world economy, but the challenges they will both face are similar: aging population, lack of managers, inadequate infrastructures, and above all an omnipresent leakage and seepage economy.Gilbert Etienne is Professor Emeritus at the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales (IUHEI) and at the Institut universitaire d’études du développement (IUED), in Geneva.