Expanding China-Africa Cooperation

By staff reporter LU RUCAI

WE reaffirm that China and Africa will continue to deepen the new type of strategic partnership of political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges.” The Beijing Declaration, one of the two outcome documents, the other being the Beijing Action Plan, of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held from July 19 to 20, emphasizes the priority areas of cooperation between China and Africa. They include: Strengthening political consultation and strategic dialogue; increasing exchanges and collaboration; reinforcing Chinas interaction with the African Union (AU) and sub-regional organizations in Africa; fully exploring and utilizing each others comparative advantages by expanding mutually beneficial economic interaction and balanced trade to elevate cooperation to a higher level; strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges; and bolstering the two regions coopera- tion in international affairs.

Following the FOCAC was the two-day First Forum on China-Africa Cooperation between Local Governments that opened on August 27, where political leaders and entrepreneurs from China and Africa discussed the potential of China-Africa cooperation.

Since the first FOCAC took place in October 2000, China and FOCAC member states have made new achievements in all respects under the cooperation mechanism.

Great Progress on a new type strategic Partnership

Chinese president Hu Jintao pointed out in his speech at the opening ceremony in July of the Fifth Ministerial Conference that since China and Africa agreed to establish a new type of strategic partnership in 2006, their interaction has been fruitful. China and Africa have enhanced all-round friendly political relations in which mutual respect and trust are paramount, and where deepened practical economic cooperation has brought mutual benefits. The two sides have joined hands in withstanding the international financial crisis and brought into effect the eight measures for practical cooperation announced at the Beijing Summit and the eight additional measures announced at the Fourth Ministerial Conference.

In 2011, China-Africa trade reached US $166.3 billion – triple that in 2006. Cumulative Chinese direct investment in Africa exceeds US $15 billion, with investment projects covering 50 countries. Chinas aid to Africa has also steadily grown. China has built more than 100 schools, 30 hospitals, 30 anti-malaria centers and 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers. It has also lived up to its pledge to provide US $15 billion preferential loans to Africa. “China has given considerable financial assistance to Africa,” Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou said. “It has kept the promises it made.”

China and Africa have learned from each other with the help of people-to- people and cultural exchanges, and witnessed buoyant interaction. Since 2000, China has trained about 40,000 people in various professions and provided more than 20,000 scholarships to African students. Forty universities in China and Africa have established 20 pairs of cooperation partners under the “ChinaAfrica Universities 20 + 20 Cooperation Project.” China has moreover set up 29 Confucius Colleges and Classrooms in Africa in efforts to enable African people to learn about and appreciate Chinese culture.

More than 20 companies signed eight investment and economic cooperation projects, involving a total sum of US $341 million, at the Fourth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs, which was held at the same time as the Fifth Ministerial Conference. The projects include institutional cooperation, finance, aviation and agriculture, mainly in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, C?te dIvoire and Ghana. Yuan Li, deputy governor of the National Development Bank, said at the conference that the ChinaAfrica Development Fund, established in June 2006, has promised to invest as much as US $2 billion in Africa, which will elicit US $10 billion of investment from Chinese enterprises.

Deeper, Broader Cooperation

In the coming three years China will provide a US $20 billion credit line to African countries – triple what it previously pledged. The Chinese government will act in five priority areas to support peace and development in Africa and promote a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership. Such action includes setting up the “African Talents Program” to train 30,000 personnel in various sectors, offering 18,000 government scholarships, and sending 1,500 medical workers to Africa. China will also help African countries enhance capacity building in meteorological infrastructure and forest protection and management.

These are part and parcel of the measures the Chinese government will take in the next three years to promote strategic partnership between China and Africa. Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh observed in an interview that this course of action reflects Chinas willingness to strengthen its bond with the African continent.

He Wenping, director of the African Research Office of the Institute of West Asia and Africa of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, regards these upcoming measures as signifying a change in the modes of cooperation between the two regions. “China has adjusted its focus on aid to Africa,” Ms. He said. “We will help Africa to construct such infrastructure as buildings, roads and bridges, and also to create a good social and cultural environment of benefit to ordinary people.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the FOCAC opening ceremony that there is great potential for the relationship between China and Africa to work together on poverty reduction, capacity building and green economy initiatives. In line with the five priority areas specified at the FOCAC, China will expand its assistance in setting up agricultural technology demonstration centers to help strengthen agricultural production capacity, and continue the drilling projects that will provide more people with potable water. These projects can help reduce poverty among local residents and also increase their selfdevelopment capacity.

“While in southern Africa last year, I found that China-Africa cooperation was both prospering and welcomed by locals,” Chinas special envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike said. “It has brought real benefits to local communities, including agricultural development.” Wu concluded by saying that cooperation should be deepened in such areas as science and technology, new energy and international affairs.