grand diplomacy | china-africa cooperation forum summit concludes: may the world pay more attention to africa
2024-09-07
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with the end of the china-africa entrepreneurs conference, the three-day 2024 forum on china-africa cooperation summit closed in beijing. during the three days, leaders from more than 50 african countries gathered in beijing. chinese and african leaders unanimously agreed to elevate china-africa relations to an all-weather china-africa community with a shared future in the new era.
in the 24 years since the establishment of the forum on china-africa cooperation, china-africa relations have achieved a leap from a "new type of partnership" to a "comprehensive strategic partnership" and now to an "all-weather community of shared future in the new era". in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the forum on china-africa cooperation beijing summit, president xi jinping said: "after nearly 70 years of hard work, china-africa relations are at their best in history."
un secretary-general guterres attended the summit in china as a special guest. at the opening ceremony on september 5, he described the partnership between china and the african continent as a promoter of "south-south cooperation." he pointed out that africa has the most dynamic economy in the world and can maximize the potential of china's support in areas such as trade, data management, finance and technology.
looking to the future, the two sides adopted two important documents to strengthen china-africa cooperation in the next three years - the beijing declaration on building an all-weather china-africa community with a shared future in the new era and the forum on china-africa cooperation-beijing action plan (2025-2027). president xi jinping announced that china will carry out the "ten partnership actions" with africa to jointly promote modernization in the next three years.
at this meeting, in order to promote the implementation of the "ten partners action", the chinese government is willing to provide rmb 360 billion in financial support, including rmb 210 billion in credit funds and rmb 80 billion in various types of assistance, and promote chinese companies to invest no less than rmb 70 billion in africa. china will also encourage and support african countries to issue "panda bonds" in china, providing strong support for practical cooperation between china and africa in various fields.
bilateral meetings between chinese and african leaders are held intensively
on the evening of september 4, president xi jinping and his wife peng liyuan hosted a banquet at the great hall of the people in beijing to welcome african leaders attending the summit. prior to this, president xi jinping had held three consecutive days of bilateral talks with leaders of more than 20 countries.
the "china-africa moment" officially began on september 2. according to cctv news, president xi jinping held talks and meetings with nine african heads of state who came to china to attend the summit.
on september 3, president xi jinping held talks and meetings with seven african leaders. in addition to one leader of an international organization, the other six leaders were from east africa, two from west africa, and one from central africa. "bilateral relations have been upgraded" was a key word in many meetings that day. during the talks and meetings with six african heads of state, president xi jinping announced a new positioning of bilateral relations with four of them. among them, the bilateral relations with chad, malawi and mauritania were upgraded to strategic partnerships, and the bilateral relations with nigeria were upgraded to comprehensive strategic partnerships.
continuing the tight rhythm of the previous two days, president xi jinping held meetings and talks with leaders of 10 african countries on september 4. from september 5 to 6, president xi jinping also met with heads of state of rwanda, namibia, congo (brazzaville), gambia, central africa, south sudan and other countries.
four high-level meetings highlight common concerns
the bilateral meetings between the leaders of chinese and african countries not only maintained an intensive pace, but also continued the pragmatic "china-africa strength".
"elevate the overall positioning of china-africa relations to an all-weather china-africa community with a shared future in the new era." on september 5, president xi jinping attended the opening ceremony of the beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation and delivered a keynote speech, announcing the new positioning of china-africa relations, sending a strong signal that china and africa will work together, and proposed that in the next three years, china is willing to carry out the "ten partnership actions" with african countries to jointly promote modernization, deepen china-africa cooperation, and lead the modernization of the "global south".
on the afternoon of the 5th, four high-level meetings were held in parallel around the four major topics of "governance", "industrialization and agricultural modernization", "peace and security", and "high-quality joint construction of the belt and road". the four major topics reflect the themes and requirements of the current era, embody the common concerns and expectations of china and africa for modernization development, and are also the key directions for the construction of the china-africa cooperation forum in the new era.
under the framework of the forum on china-africa cooperation, china has always attached importance to sharing its experience in state governance with africa and helping africa achieve industrialization and agricultural modernization. in the process of development cooperation with africa, china has always insisted on promoting landmark projects and "small but beautiful" livelihood projects. four brands have taken root in africa, one of which is a hybrid rice brand.
according to the national international development cooperation agency on august 20, china and africa have cooperated on hybrid rice technology, helping madagascar, liberia, mozambique and other countries to increase rice production by imparting technology and cultivating improved varieties. according to current statistics, the implemented projects have helped these countries increase rice production from an average of 2 tons per hectare to 7.5 tons. while helping african countries develop agriculture, they have also promoted local poverty reduction and alleviated food shortages.
in terms of peace and security, this summit set it as one of the topics of the high-level meeting, which shows the determination and action of china and africa to jointly implement the global security initiative and promote world peace and development. cai qi, member of the standing committee of the political bureau of the cpc central committee and secretary of the central secretariat, said at the high-level meeting on peace and security that china, as the world's largest developing country and africa, as the continent with the most developing countries, will make greater contributions to world peace and development if the two sides work together to promote the modernization of peace and security. china is willing to play a greater role in africa's peace and security cause.
before this summit, many african scholars said that high-quality joint construction of the belt and road initiative has played an important role in promoting connectivity among african countries. at present, 52 african countries and the au commission have signed cooperation documents with china on the joint construction of the belt and road initiative. the diamniadjo industrial park in senegal, the lekki free trade zone in nigeria, and the china-egypt teda suez economic and trade cooperation zone... these parks in which china has participated in investment have promoted the accelerated development of "made in africa".
the new york times quoted experts as saying that although the form of cooperation between beijing and africa has changed, "china has maintained a summit every three years for the past 20 years, which is a huge achievement."
the summit achieved fruitful results
on september 5, chinese state leaders took a group photo with more than 50 foreign leaders, capturing the highlight of china-africa cooperation. according to cctv news, 51 of the african leaders attending the summit were heads of state or government, including old friends who had attended the previous three summits, as well as mali president goita and senegalese president faye, who attended the summit as heads of state for the first time.
on the evening of september 5, wang yi, member of the political bureau of the cpc central committee and foreign minister, together with foreign minister fall of senegal, the current african co-chair of the forum on china-africa cooperation, and foreign minister gakosso of the republic of congo, the next co-chair, met with chinese and foreign journalists and answered questions.
wang yi introduced the four major achievements of this summit, including the full coverage of strategic partnership between china and african countries with which it has diplomatic ties; the upgrading of china-africa overall relations to an all-weather community with a shared future in the new era; the clarification of the six major propositions for china and africa to jointly promote modernization; and the formulation of an action blueprint for china-africa cooperation in the next stage.
according to incomplete statistics, china has helped africa build and upgrade nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads, more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 1,000 bridges, and nearly 100 ports. china has sent medical teams to almost all african countries. in the past three years, chinese companies have created more than 1.1 million jobs in africa.
the summit unanimously adopted two documents, namely, the beijing declaration of the 2024 forum on china-africa cooperation summit and the forum on china-africa cooperation-beijing action plan (2025-2027), which plan the implementation path of high-quality cooperation between china and africa in the next three years.
while the china-africa cooperation forum summit was held grandly, it can also be noted that many countries and regions have held african summits in recent years, and this year alone, many of them have attracted attention from the outside world. in january this year, the first italy-africa leaders summit was held in rome; in may, the 16th us-africa business summit was held in dallas, usa; in june, the first south korea-africa summit was held in seoul. just this week, the indonesia-africa forum was held in bali, indonesia, where indonesian president joko and leaders and representatives of 22 african countries discussed issues such as trade, supply chain, and health care.
regarding the parties' use of the summit to update their respective relations with africa, wang yi responded at a press conference on september 5 that other countries are now willing to turn their attention to africa and pay more attention to africa. as a good friend of africa, china is happy about this and we also welcome all countries to support and help africa more.
chinese companies will increase investment in african market
africa is in a period of demographic dividend potential, with a growing labor force. according to the united nations forecast, africa's population will reach 2.5 billion in 2050, accounting for 1/4 of the world's total population.
senegalese foreign minister fall said in an interview with the media during the forum on china-africa cooperation summit that africa has a large number of well-trained young people who provide labor for the world's factories. china also experienced a period of backwardness, but now has developed into one of the world's largest economies. therefore, africa's development needs the help of chinese companies, as well as china's expertise and development experience.
on september 6, the 8th china-africa entrepreneurs conference kicked off with thousands of attendees. according to xinhua news agency, premier li qiang attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. he said that china and africa should work together more closely to promote economic and trade cooperation to a deeper level and a higher level, further strengthen market connection, further promote industrial integration, and further strengthen innovation-driven development.
at the entrepreneurs conference, several african leaders called on chinese entrepreneurs to increase investment in africa. senegalese president faye said that africa needs funds to support its development, but there is a huge gap in foreign direct investment in africa. according to statistics from the african development bank, africa's annual financing gap is 402 billion us dollars. "we are pleased that china's direct investment in africa will increase to 44.19 billion us dollars in 2023, close to the level before the epidemic, but our goal is to attract more investment." he said that studies have shown that every 10% increase in china's direct investment in africa will drive africa's per capita gdp to rise by 0.09%.
many chinese companies have stated that they will increase their investment in the african market. jia shaoqian, chairman of hisense group, said that next year hisense will continue to build new factories in south africa and provide partners with technological and digital management systems to promote the rapid development of the entire policy chain, capital chain and supply chain. lei jun, founder, chairman and ceo of xiaomi group, also said that the next step will be to increase investment in the african continent and hope to strengthen cooperation with africa in emerging industries such as new energy vehicles.
china-africa economic and trade cooperation has developed rapidly, and the scale of trade and investment has continued to expand. according to china news service, official data shows that china-africa trade volume has increased from us$10.5 billion in 2000 to us$282.1 billion in 2023, an increase of nearly 26 times; china's investment stock in africa has increased from less than us$500 million in 2000 to more than us$40 billion in 2023, making it one of the largest sources of foreign investment in africa.
the paper reporter chen qinhan and yang wenqin
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