This year marks the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Over the past 21 years, the Forum has adhered to common development, mutual benefit and win-win results, and has continuously helped China-Africa cooperation in various fields to achieve a series of remarkable results. President Xi Jinping pointed out that the forum was born in response to the trend of the times, flourished with China-Africa cooperation, and continued to mature and improve, becoming a banner of international cooperation with Africa and South-South cooperation.
The new foca-china cooperation meeting will be held in Senegal. Before the meeting, Wu Peng, Secretary-General of the China Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and Director of the Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was interviewed by China and Africa magazine and shared his views on the implementation of the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the important role played by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation mechanism in promoting exchanges and cooperation in various fields between China and Africa. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Wu Peng, Secretary-General of the China Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and Director Of the Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
China and Africa: Since the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, what efforts has China made to promote the implementation of a series of outcomes of the Beijing Summit, what measures have been taken, and what are the results?
The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is a milestone in the history of China-Africa relations. After the summit, China and Africa jointly promoted the implementation of the high-quality implementation of the outcomes of the Beijing Summit. Although the sudden outbreak of the epidemic has disrupted the rhythm of China-Africa cooperation, it has not shaken the confidence of both sides to strengthen cooperation. We have proceeded from two aspects to promote China-Africa cooperation to continue to maintain a strong momentum.
On September 4, 2018, the Roundtable of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Tao)
On the one hand, we will fight the "epidemic" side by side and overcome the difficulties of the times together. The successful holding of the China-Africa Solidarity and Anti-Epidemic Special Summit demonstrates the firm confidence of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation in fighting the epidemic together. During the difficult period of domestic anti-epidemic, an African student in Foshan, Guangdong Province, left a note and 500 yuan at the police station, said "I love China" with Chinese and left. The note to the effect is that I donate all I have, hoping to help save more lives, which is my support for China's fight against the epidemic. This story is just a microcosm of all walks of life in Africa for China's various forms of solidarity and support, and the Chinese side will not forget it. After the outbreak of the epidemic in Africa, China took the lead in rushing to the rescue, dispatched anti-epidemic medical expert teams to 15 countries, cooperated with 43 hospitals in 38 African countries, achieved "full coverage" of African members of the Forum for non-anti-epidemic material assistance, and provided vaccines to more than 50 countries and the African Union through aid and commercial exports, which was widely praised by African countries.
On the other hand, we will face difficulties and promote cooperation. Under the epidemic situation, the two sides will focus on health and hygiene, resumption of work and production, and improvement of people's livelihood. Since the Beijing Summit, China and Africa have successfully held important activities such as the Economic and Trade Expo and the Agricultural Cooperation Forum, and the China Academy of African Studies, the China-Africa Environmental Cooperation Center and 14 Luban Workshops have been listed. China overcame difficulties, a large number of personnel stuck to their posts or retrograde Africa, to ensure that more than 1,100 cooperation projects did not stop swinging, a large number of projects took root. From January to July this year, China-Africa trade volume and non-industry-wide direct investment both rose against the trend, with trade volume reaching US$139.1 billion, an increase of 40.5% year-on-year; direct investment was US$2.96 billion, exceeding the level of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic. China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years and africa's second largest agricultural export destination.
The African side expressed satisfaction with the implementation of the outcomes of the Beijing Summit and the Solidarity and Anti-epidemic Special Summit of the Forum, and believes that such achievements have not been easy to achieve under the adverse impact of the epidemic. This also fully demonstrates that China-Africa cooperation is not only pragmatic and efficient, but also has strong resilience, which gives both sides more confidence in overcoming difficulties and pushes China-Africa relations to a new level.
China and Africa: What are your expectations for the upcoming new session of the Forum?
The eighth ministerial meeting of the Forum will be held in Dakar, senegal, and will plan a new direction for China-Africa cooperation in the next three years and for a longer period of time, injecting new vitality into the development of China-Africa relations. China and Africa are working closely together to incorporate more new measures for pragmatic cooperation into the outcomes of the conference.
In terms of cooperation areas, we should closely focus on the main line of promoting the transformation and upgrading of China-Africa cooperation, improving quality and efficiency, and launch targeted cooperation measures in key areas such as health, investment and trade, agricultural security, climate change, human resources, and digital innovation. Some work has been "one step ahead", such as the "China-Africa Digital Innovation Partnership Program" proposed not long ago, China and Africa have subsequently jointly held the African product e-commerce promotion season to help African products open up the Chinese market, so that Chinese consumers can buy high-quality African goods at more preferential prices, expand China's imports to Africa, and also help Africa tide over the epidemic. It is believed that the introduction of new measures at the forum meeting will stimulate more potential for China-Africa cooperation and create a new ballast stone and booster for China-Africa relations.
From the main body of cooperation, private enterprises can play a greater role in the future. At present, private enterprises account for 90% of the number of Non-enterprises in China, and the scale of direct investment in Africa by Chinese enterprises accounts for about 70%, and Huawei, Transsion and other enterprises are well-known in Africa. The new session of the forum will open up a broader space for the development of private enterprises in Africa. It is hoped that private enterprises will conform to the new situation of china-Africa cooperation and development, give full play to their own competitive advantages, find out the positioning and anchor the direction, and contribute more wisdom and strength to deepening China-Africa cooperation and promoting Africa's economic and social development.
China and Africa: What role does the FORUM mechanism play in promoting exchanges and cooperation in various fields between China and Africa?
In the 21 years since its establishment, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has shown the following characteristics under the guidance and impetus of the Forum:
First, political mutual trust has been deepening. China-Africa relations have completed the triple jump from "new partnership" to "new strategic partnership" to "comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership". China and Africa agreed to work together to build a closer China-Africa community of common destiny, setting an example for promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. Since the 18th Party Congress, President Xi Jinping has visited Africa four times, and the tradition of the Chinese foreign minister's first visit to Africa in the New Year has been adhered to for 31 years.
Second, pragmatic cooperation has yielded fruitful results. Compared with 2000, China's trade volume and investment stock with Africa have increased by 20 times and 100 times respectively, becoming Africa's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. 46 African countries and the AU Commission signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements with China. With the implementation of the "Ten Cooperation Plans" and "Eight Major Actions", a large number of infrastructure and people's livelihood projects have been completed, driving China's equipment, technology and standards overseas. More than 3,800 Chinese enterprises have invested in African countries, and dozens of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation zones and industrial parks have landed. Africa is China's second largest source of crude oil imports, with crude oil imports from Angola alone accounting for 20% of China's total imports; China's second largest overseas project contracting market, according to incomplete statistics, our non-completed project contracting amount exceeds 570 billion US dollars; according to the recently released China Investment Report on Africa, the stock of Chinese enterprises' direct investment in Africa should not be less than 56 billion US dollars. Africa has become an important part of China's expansion of opening up, strengthening domestic and international economic linkages, and building a new development pattern.
On October 28, 2020, representatives of African youth in China experienced porcelain music performance in the Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Expo Area of Jingdezhen. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Cao Dian)
Third, people-to-people exchanges are rich and colorful. Important people-to-people exchange mechanisms and platforms such as the China-Africa Youth Gala, think tank forum, media cooperation forum, joint exchange program, news exchange center, and China Africa Research Institute have been established. China has set up several cultural centers in Africa, founding 61 Confucius Institutes and 48 Confucius Classrooms. China has sent 21,000 medical teams to 48 African countries and treated about 220 million African patients. 34 African countries have become outbound tourism destinations for Chinese citizens. China and Africa have established 150 pairs of sister city relations. The mutual understanding between the two peoples is deepening day by day, and the traditional friendship is constantly passed on.
China and Africa: What are the current difficulties and challenges in China-Africa cooperation, and how do you view the prospects for China-Africa cooperation?
At present, the intertwined influence of the century-old great changes and the epidemic of the century, whether it is China or African countries, the economies are facing challenges, the expectations of non-parties to deepen China-Africa cooperation are rising, coupled with the interference and destruction of external factors, China-Africa cooperation is "the ship to the middle of the wandering is more urgent", if not to advance or retreat.
From China's own point of view, under the epidemic, it is more difficult for Chinese enterprises to promote non-projects, some enterprises are more concerned about large projects, insufficient investment and attention to small people's livelihood projects, and the willingness to "go global" has decreased. Some enterprises lack internationalization and localization operations, and some violations of laws and regulations by non-enterprises and individuals occur from time to time, damaging China's image. From the perspective of Africa, due to the impact of the epidemic, the traditional and non-traditional security threats in Africa have increased, the pressure on economic and social development has increased, and the debt problem has further increased. The African Development Bank predicts that In 2020, Africa will suffer the worst recession in nearly half a century, and although there will be a recovery in 2021, the negative impact of the epidemic on Africa's development will be difficult to eliminate in a short period of time, and there is still a long way to go to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Although China-Africa relations are in a critical period of climbing over the hill, China and Africa have a profound traditional friendship, a solid foundation for cooperation and a strong mechanism guarantee, and China-Africa friendly cooperation is still facing important historic opportunities, and the prospects for win-win cooperation are bright.
On the one hand, China and Africa have each entered a new stage of development, and the complementary economic advantages of the two sides have become more obvious. China is accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and is committed to opening wider to the outside world at a higher level. The African Free Trade Area (FTA), which was officially launched this year, is expected to stimulate the market potential of 1.3 billion people and a total economic volume of 3.4 trillion US dollars, injecting new strong momentum into Africa's economic development. The advantages of cascading in the development stages of China and Africa will be further revealed, and the road of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Africa will become wider and wider.
On the other hand, the rise of a new round of scientific and technological and industrial changes has brought new opportunities for deepening China-Africa cooperation. At present, China-Africa cooperation has shown a good momentum of transformation from government-led to market operation, from commodity trade to capacity cooperation and upgrading, and from project contracting to investment and operation. The epidemic has catalyzed cooperation within Africa and between China and Africa in the fields of health care, 5G, digital economy, industrial chain supply chain integration and other fields, creating good conditions for expanding the breadth and depth of China-Africa cooperation, and the momentum of China-Africa cooperation transformation and upgrading will be stronger.
China's confidence in Strengthening Africa Cooperation will not waver, the direction will not change, and its actions will not weaken, and it will continue to uphold the concept of sincerity and the correct concept of righteousness and interests, work with African brothers to properly cope with the challenges brought by changes in the situation to China-Africa cooperation, focus on the "post-epidemic era", promote China-Africa cooperation to keep pace with the times and forge ahead, so that bilateral cooperation will burst out with new vitality and vitality, and better benefit the Chinese and African people with tangible results. (Source: Beijing Weekly)
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