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Abstract Africa is a continent of opportunities that is likely to play an increasingly important role in the future international division of labour. Yet, German companies’ economic activity and investment in Africa is still limited. This article examines how the digital transformation is changing the investment and innovation conditions in Africa, how German companies can utilise new opportunities resulting from these changes and how politics can foster greater commitment by German and European companies in Africa.

Since the mid 1990’s the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research strikes a new path in technology funding by tying technology policy initiatives to the regional level. The BioRegio contest and the InnoRegio contest are considered to be the prototype models of this new policy. The current paper analyses and compares the two prototype models and elaborates conceptual strengths and weaknesses of region oriented technology policy.