By Chao Xiaoliang
The Summit of the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing this September. Chinese
government has been working hard together with African countries’
governments to ensure a success of the coming summit.
FOCAC, consisting of China and 53
African member states and the commission of the African Union, is a
platform established by China and friendly African countries for
collective consultation and dialogue and it is a cooperation mechanism
between developing countries. Since the establishment of FOCAC in 2000,
China-Africa cooperation has yielded fruitful results. It has become a
successful example of South-South cooperation and has attracted world
attention.
This year marks the 18th anniversary of
FOCAC. The past 18 years witnessed a strengthened and more mature China
Africa relationship. China and Africa have enjoyed growing mutual
political trust and frequent high-level exchanges. Cooperation between
China and Africa strengthened in major areas as industrialisation,
agricultural modernisation, infrastructure, green development, poverty
alleviation, public health, trade and investment facilitation,
people-to-people and cultural exchanges, peace and security. The trade
volume between China and Africa has risen from US$10.6 billion to US$170
billion from the year 2000 to 2017. China’s outward Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) stock in Africa has soared from US$500 million to more
than US$41 billion in the same period of time.
The FOCAC Johannesburg Summit in 2015
was a great success. In the past 3 years, China and Africa countries
worked hard together to achieve the FOCAC summit resolutions. This year,
Chinese President Xi Jinping has invited all the leaders of the forum
members to attend the summit in September. The summit will surely inject
fresh and strong impetus into China-Africa mutually beneficial
cooperation, elevate it to a new level, and push forward China-Africa
comprehensive strategic partnership to a new stage.
Despite the economic achievements in
recent years, China remains the largest and most populous developing
country while Africa is the continent with the highest concentration of
developing countries. With a combined population of more than 2.6
billion which is more than one third of the world’s population, and
shared historical experiences, development tasks and aspirations, China
and Africa has already formed a community with shared future.
Currently, both China and African
countries including Nigeria are at the crucial stage of development and
have formulated ambitious development strategies. China has drawn up a
two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of the
21st century, while Nigeria has adopted Economic Recovery and Growth
Plan (ERGP) and Nigeria’s Vision (NV) 20: 2020. China and Nigeria are
moving forward in the same direction. As a developing country, China
understands how difficult it is for a developing country to survive and
thrive in the existing global system which is far from perfection. China
always stands ready to exchange development experiences and share
development opportunities with African countries including Nigeria to
promote inclusive development.
Five years ago, Chinese President Xi
Jinping proposed the “Belt and Road”(BRI) initiative. With the win-win
cooperation and inclusiveness at its core, the BRI is open to and also
welcomes the participation of all countries. In history, the Eurasia is
the cradle of the “Belt and Road”, while Africa is the natural extension
of it. That is the reason why one of the major themes of the Beijing
Summit of FOCAC is to link the “Belt and Road” with the UN 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, the AU 2063 Agenda, and development
strategies of the African countries such as Nigeria’s Economic Recovery
and Growth Plan (ERGP).
I’m confident that, the successful
convening of FOCAC Beijing Summit will bring the comprehensive strategic
cooperative partnership between China and Africa to a new level.
Chao Xiaolian is the Consul General of China in Lagos
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