A German minister's proposal to allow foreign powers to buy land in Africa to curb migration was rejected by the African Union, writes BBC's Dickens Olewe.
The European Union, or a body such as the World Bank, should build and manage cities in Africa to promote job creation and development on the continent, Africa Minister Gunter Nooke told the BBC in a ' interview in which he outlined his thoughts on how to stem migration to Europe. Nooke, referring to the German minister's proposal, said: “it would mean that African countries should lease their land for 50 years to a foreign entity to“ allow development? It is an idea that smells of colonialism ”.
But others - like Carol Musyoka, an academic at Strathmore Business School, one of Kenya's top universities - are open to the concept.
In a BBC interview, Ms Musyoka described the proposal as "fascinating" and said she would support it if it were a genuine attempt to provide Africans - and not foreign powers - with real benefit.
Nobel laureate American economist Paul Romer also developed the same idea about a decade ago.
In 2009, he said developing countries should consider ceding part of their land to foreign states to build so-called "rental cities" from scratch. In 2008, the then president of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, expressed interest in implementing Romer's plan on the Indian Ocean island.
Indeed, he thought that two cities of this type could be built where local people and migrants from neighboring states could live.
The opposition, however, accused Ravalomanana of high treason causing his downfall in 2009.
The then president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, also expressed his support for the idea, stating in 2011 that "rental cities" would improve the lives of Hondurans by offering competitive jobs, better health and education and a first-rate legal and security system.
The independent Honduran newspaper La Prensa said the plan would make the country "the Hong Kong of Central America".
Mr. Sosa was unable to implement it, following a very strong reaction from the opposition.
As in Europe, migration has also become a political problem in the Americas where many Hondurans are part of the migratory caravan moving towards the US border. The current Honduran government hopes, therefore, that the creation of what they call special economic zones (SEZs) will foster development.
While he didn't fully outline his plans, he said SEZs would fall under the jurisdiction of foreign laws and would make Honduras, therefore, more attractive to Western investors.
“We believe that when these special economic zones come to life and people see the results in terms of employment, politicians in all states will be convinced of the idea, Economy Minister Arnaldo Castillo told the BBC.
But resistance to the idea remains strong because many Hondurans believe that SEZs will only benefit the rich and that they will create closed communities under different rules than the rest of the country.
Mr. Romer, in a 2011 TED Talk, argued that overseas-run cities could be an efficient governance model and offer a good quality of life, preventing people from emigrating for economic reasons.
Some proponents of the idea see Hong Kong as a practical model arguing that the Chinese territory owes its economic development thanks to the British protectorate between 1841 and 1997.
There are also many opponents of the idea, "Creating an enclave economy would be a crazy idea," warned Ken Opalo of Georgetown University in the United States. Such cities would favor internal migration to the detriment of the entire economy, without solving the myriad of problems of African states. "It would be better to work through state institutions," Opalo said, adding that the best way to help the continent is to invest in small and medium-sized businesses to create jobs. The African Union (AU) communications director, Leslie Richer, also rejected the idea of a foreign-run city, saying it "is a lazy response" to concerns about migration and "implies that Africa must give up its own sovereignty". The AU development plan, called Agenda 2063, is diametrically opposed to that of Mr Nooke. “I imagine our African growth model will guide the African miracle. High economic growth on the continent will be sustained driven by African unity and political and economic integration, ”said AU envoy for infrastructure development, Raila Odinga. But Mr. Nooke is determined to pursue the idea of a foreign-run city, stating that the project "must be designed in such a way as to avoid conflict between European and African governments". Musyoka is among the Africans who hope such cities will be built, saying he will accept "voluntary colonialism" due to the failure of many African governments to provide a better life for their people.