By Alusine Sesay
The Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone has spoken about the forthcoming summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which will be held in Beijing early September.
Ambassador Wang Qing told an event titled “Face to Face with China” held at the Chinese Embassy in Freetown that, during the upcoming FOCAC summit, Chinese and African leaders will gather in Beijing again after six years to discuss future development and cooperation and exchange governance experience. ‘’I believe that through this summit, China and Africa will enhance their long-standing friendship and deepen unity and collaboration to open up new vistas for faster common development and start a new chapter for a China-Africa community with a shared future,’’ he said.
At the initiative of both China and African countries, FOCAC was inaugurated at its first Ministerial Conference in Beijing in October 2000, with the goals of responding to the challenges emerging from economic globalization, and seeking common development.
Ambassador Wang said, ‘’Over the past two decades, FOCAC has become an important platform for collective dialogue between China and Africa and an effective mechanism for pragmatic cooperation. It has turned into a pacesetter for international cooperation with Africa in the new era.’’
He said that FOCAC now has 55 members comprising China, the 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and the AU Commission. The FOCAC Ministerial Conference is held once every three years, rotating between China and African countries and co-chaired by China and an African hosting country, with the co-chairs also taking the lead in implementing conference outcomes. Based on mutual agreements, some of the ministerial conferences have been upgraded into summits. To date three summits (the Beijing Summit in November 2006, the Johannesburg Summit in December 2015, and the Beijing Summit in September 2018) and 8 ministerial conferences have been convened. These have yielded rich fruits, releasing a series of important documents to guide cooperation, and promoting the implementation of a series of major measures to facilitate development in Africa and solidify China-Africa friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation.
The Chinese envoy said that with the FOCAC as the platform, China-Africa relations enter a rapid development track. ‘’The political mutual trust has reached a new level. President Xi Jinping has put forth the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and called for taking the right approach to friendship and interests. The endeavor of building a China-Africa community with a shared future has thus been steered onto a fast track.’’
He said that facing the new international landscape and various global challenges, China and Africa have held high the banner of multilateralism, firmly upheld the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and worked together to promote a more just and equitable international order and safeguard the interests of all developing countries. Ambassador Wang said China worked actively at the G20 Summit to support the AU’s full membership in the group. ‘’China supports making special arrangements on the U.N. Security Council reform to meet Africa’s aspiration as a priority,’’ he said.
“China-Africa business cooperation has made new progress. China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for the 15 years since 2009. The proportion of Africa’s trade with China in the continent’s total external trade has continued to rise. In 2023, the figure was US$282 Billion and exceeded 21.5 percent of African total external trade. The structure of China-Africa trade is improving. China has increased its imports of non-resource products from Africa, and offered zero-tariff treatment to 98 percent of taxable items exported to China by Africa countries, with the goal of helping more African agricultural and manufactured goods gain access to the Chinese market. China’s imports in services from Africa have been growing at an average annual rate of 20 percent since 2017, creating close to 400,000 jobs for the continent every year. In recent years, China’s imports of agricultural products from Africa have also risen, and China has emerged as the second largest destination for Africa’s agricultural exports. China and Africa have seen booming trade in new business models including cross-border e-commerce,” he said.
He said that the cooperation in investment and financing has been one of the success stories of China-Africa cooperation in recent years, bringing new vitality into Africa’s economic and social development, adding that it covers a wide range of fields including mining, processing and smelting of ores, equipment manufacturing, agriculture, home appliance production, aviation services, medicine and health, and the digital economy. “With this help, African countries have been able to upgrade their industrialization, improve their industries, and increase their capacity to earn foreign exchange through exports,” Ambassador Wang said.
He noted that China-Africa solidarity and mutual assistance has become a fine example of international cooperation against the pandemic. “In face of the sudden onslaught of COVID-19, China and Africa have stood side by side to fight the virus and overcome the difficulties. At the most challenging time of China’s battle against COVID-19, African countries offered us invaluable support. And when Africa was struck by the virus, China was the first to rush in with assistance. We have established cooperation mechanisms with 45 hospitals in 40 African countries, and provided anti-epidemic supplies to each and every African member of FOCAC,” the Chinese Envoy said.
He said that China-Africa people-to-people and cultural exchange has gained new development. “Under the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan, more than 60 research projects and seminars have been implemented. The media cooperation networks have kept expanding. Nearly 30 African media organizations have joined the Belt and Road News Alliance, and a “cloud center” has been established in the China-Africa Press Center. The China-Africa Think Tanks Forum, the China-Africa Poverty Reduction and Development Conference, the Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation, and other high-quality exchange, the China-Africa Youth Festival, the Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation, the China-Africa Young Leaders Forum, the China-Africa People’s Forum and other events were successfully held. Thirty-four African countries and territories have gained Approved Destination Status for organized tours of Chinese citizens. Mariatu Kargbo and other African artists, active on the stages in China, enjoy huge popularity among the Chinese people.”