The scramble for Africa's natural resources such as land, oil and gas is pitting international powers against one another.
The growing importance of Kenya, and indeed sub-Saharan Africa, to the global economy magnifies the significance and implications of the divergent policy approaches of the United States and China toward the region.
On a factory floor in western China, where 2,000 workers hammer and drill at a line of half-built cars that stretches away like a traffic jam without end, a lone robot tirelessly applies sealant to windscreens.
Yun Tianzhi, 60, welcomed a new family member last month - a robot that does the cleaning. It was a gift from his son who emigrated to Canada four years ago.
Today, it's hard to imagine mass production, especially in automotive and other large-scale industries, without robotics. Yet when General Motors installed the very first robot, in 1961, it was as revolutionary as it was innovative, thanks to several key characteristics.
Half a century ago the first industrial robot, Unimate, was put to use at a General Motors plant, signifying the start of the third industrial revolution, and robots have been slowly replacing human workers in manufacturing operations ever since.
Raising capital for a startup has traditionally been one of the most difficult parts of getting the idea off the ground, but circumstances have greatly changed recently, and many Asian startups have become billion-dollar success stories.
When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang recently visited Zhongguancun, the technology district in Beijing often referred to as China's Silicon Valley, he was told that the startup job-listings website Lagou.com had helped more than 1 million IT workers land jobs since it was set up less than two years ago.
The number of frugal products and processes in Asia has grown rapidly recently, and emerging markets such as China are proving to be a breeding ground for new ideas.
For me, topics of conversation during dinner with friends are always the best way to gauge social and economic trends. This is especially true in Shanghai, China's financial center, where I live.
In an extraordinary British documentary series, the latest edition being 56UP, a director has attempted to show how difficult it is for a person to escape their social class in the United Kingdom, highlighting how children from rich families tend to stay rich, while children from poor families often remain poor.
An overnight train ride from Nairobi to the seaside city of Mombasa can easily turn into a nightmare. It is not unusual for passengers to wake up in the morning stuck on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital. The train, which runs every two days, is supposed to leave Nairobi at 9 pm, but often does not depart until after midnight, and a journey that should take 15 hours can stretch to more than 20 hours.
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