China-Africa youth leadership forum stresses need for more cooperation

Participants at the fourth China-Africa Young Leaders Forum have put their heads together to find common solutions for a nation and continent at different stages of economic development and transformation, an official said.

Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was speaking after a two-day event in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, which ended on May 27.

Both China and Africa should take people-oriented and self-reliant approaches that suit their situations, he said at the forum, which was attended by young members of 40 African political parties.

They also reached consensus on the need for strengthened China-Africa cooperation, raising awareness of jointly building a shared future for mankind, and instilling a higher sense of mission in African young people to create a better future for their nations.

The takeaways from the event will serve as reference points for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, to be held in Beijing in September, Guo said.

Suggestions were put forward concerning theoretical and organizational issues for sustainable development, said Mpho Gift Modise, secretary of the Gauteng Youth League of South Africa’s African National Congress.

He urged China’s long-lasting support for African development to be put to good use.

Modise suggested an executive committee be established to implement the agreements reached during the forum.

The forum provided an opportunity for envisioning a community with a shared future for mankind, a goal impossible to attain without the participation of youth, said Juste Bernardin Gavet, first secretary of the Congolese Rising Force in the Republic of Congo.

A special economic zone in the port city of Pointe-Noire has been set up in the Republic of Congo, and government delegations have been sent to China to draw on its experience, he said.