China-Africa: China-Africa cooperation in full swing - By Wu Chunhua Chinese Ambassador to Egypt
Monday, August 3rd, 2009Sino-African friendship goes back to ancient times and the brave and bright Chinese and African people had joined the two miraculous continents through their contacts long long ago. The newly-established People’s Republic of China conducted friendly contacts six full decades ago with those African countries, which had won their independence. And a new era for Sino-African ties ushered in 1956 when Egypt formerly recognized and officially forged diplomatic ties with China.
Since then, batch after batch of gifted, hard-working Chinese experts, engineers, technicians and medical workers have gone to work for African countries. They helped build, among other “historical monumental works” of friendship, the Tanzania-Zambia railway line, the Cairo International Convention Center, the Friendship Port in Mauritania, and rural water supply projects in Tanzania on the continent, thus contributing to Africa’s construction and development.
With the creation of China-Africa Cooperation Forum mechanism in the new millennium and particularly since the successful convocation of the Beijing Summit of November 3-5, 2006, a new type of strategic partnership has integrated more closely China, the world’s biggest developing nation, and Africa with the highest concentration of developing nations.
First, the strategic mutual trust is further deepening. Sino-African ties have advanced and developed by leaps and bounds over the past two years and more. With a frequent exchange of high-level visits between the two sides, Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary Hu Jintao and other CPC and state leaders in their numerous trips to Africa brought the cooperative outcome or prospects evidenced in the Beijing Summit to the African people, and sincerely helped the continent to bring about development and prosperity.
Leaders from some 40 African countries converged in Beijing for the 2006 summit. Afterwards, numerous African political leaders came to the Chinese national capital to view or witness the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008 as a concrete expression of their attention and support to China’s development and expansion as well as an embodiment of their brotherhood.
China and African countries have set up a mechanism of regular political dialogue between foreign ministers. It has become a general practice for the Chinese foreign minister to visit Africa on his first trip every year.
Chinese peacekeepers, both men and officers, scrupulously abide by their obligations to work for the cause of African peace. Moreover, China’s judicial organs, political parties and youths or women’s organizations have also launched multi-round dialogues or exchanges with their African counterparts.
Besides, Sino-African economic and trade cooperation is gratifying. China has actively been implementing the eight general principles and objectives designed for Sino-African substantial cooperation, so as to bring them real, substantial benefits. In 2008, China-Africa trade volume reached 106.8 billion US dollars, up 45.1 percent from a year earlier, and realized the trade goal two years ahead of schedule, according to the Chinese government statistics.
The Chinese side announced to cancel debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owned by the heavily-indebted and the least developed African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. The country has also encouraged Chinese companies to increase the scale in their investment in Africa.
China’s direct investment in Africa has so far exceeded 5 billion US dollars, and the China-Africa Fund has invested 400 million dollars in 20 projects, which brought cumulative investment by Chinese enterprises to about 2 billion dollars.
China is currently exerting its utmost to fulfill its commitments and implement to the letter various policy measures toward Africa adopted at the China-Africa Summit held in Beijing in early Nov. 2006, though it is also in difficulty itself for being hit and impacted by the ongoing global financial crisis.
Third, Sino-African cultural exchange is a feast for the eyes of people the world over, all being amazing and wonderful. To date, Africa is a host of thee Chinese cultural centers, and 21 Confucius Institutes around the continent have been turned into showcases or platforms for the spread of Chinese culture on the continent, giving rise to the “Chinese culture fever” and the “Han Chinese language fever”.
An increasing number of Chinese art troupes have made tours of Africa, during which performing artists treated people in Africa to a diversity of performances, including acrobatics, martial arts or Wushu, as well as song and dance items. Meanwhile, the African “flower of art” is in blossom on the Chinese soil. The “Night of Africa”, a song and dance spectacle took the stage at the Great Hall of the People on the eve of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and some 100 performers from seven African nations were warmly welcome as if they had “brought Chinese viewers to the faraway, beautiful African continent”.
Africa is absolutely a continent of great hope, with a new lease of life and an unbelievable potential for development. The growth of Sino-Africa relations has given an eloquent proof that China and Africa are good friends, good partners and good brothers and the growth of Sino-African ties conforms to the fundamental interest of both sides.
The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), due to be held in Cairo, Egypt in the last quarter this year, will be a great gathering for an all-round appraisal of the outcome scored by the Beijing Summit held in 2006 and to make new planning for Sino-Africa cooperation in the next three years. So, it is widely believed that the upcoming grand assembly would raise or uplift Sino-African cooperation to a new height.
By People’s Daily Online and contributed by Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Wu Chunhua
