Continent can now reclaim its rightful place

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is being held in Beijing. Themed "Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future", the summit provides a policy platform for leaders from the two civilizations to promote exchanges on the status quo and prospects of China-Africa cooperation.

Since its inception in 2000, FOCAC has grown to become the greatest shared human value of promoting sustainable development. It has redefined the concepts of development and modernization while connecting and transforming the continent of Africa and China. Once described as the dark and hopeless continent by Western-led partners, Africa after 24 years of FOCAC can now reclaim its rightful position as a rising continent.

Anchored on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, FOCAC has greatly bolstered the economic development of the continent, attracting foreign investment, promoting local employment, freeing people from poverty, and gradually moving populations toward a prosperous and well-off life.

FOCAC has also paved the way for other shared human values in Africa such as the adoption and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa and the Global Civilization Initiative. These transformative initiatives have played a huge role in revolutionizing Africa's Agenda 2063 and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Today, Africa has benefited by having more than 100,000 kilometers of roads, 10,000 kilometers of railroad, 1,000 bridges and approximately 100 ports completed under BRI and FOCAC. These projects have enabled Africa to become a fulcrum and frontier of development.

Similarly, the already completed infrastructure projects have promoted regional integration. For example, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway has connected Ethiopia, a landlocked country, to the maritime trade routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway, which is anchored on the East African Railway Master Plan, once completed will rejuvenate the railways connecting Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and beyond. Goods and services will be easily transported from one country to another in a safer, faster and more cost-efficient way. This spurs the true concept of Pan-Africanism where Africa not only shares a common history, but a common destiny.

FOCAC has also provided the most affordable capital development assistance to the continent and essentially accelerated the continent's recovery from centuries of slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonial domination. More than $200 million has been given either as concessional loans and preferential export buyer's credit to African countries. This triggered a new global focus on Africa, normally referred to as the new scramble for Africa. This funding from FOCAC has also re-engineered the inequalities of the colonial projects and now Africa is experiencing sustainable development.

FOCAC has also helped to reduce the trade imbalance that African countries have been complaining about for decades by ensuring the continent moves away from extractive exports to industrialized goods. The efforts made toward industrial goods tend to promote African industrialization and the advancement of its manufacturing sector, which will automatically lead to more employment opportunities for the continent.

Thus, as African and Chinese leaders in Beijing meet to assess the effect of the agreed nine programs of Africa-China cooperation, including poverty reduction, trade and investment promotion, digital innovation and green development program from the last Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, they must all guard the gains made from the anti-globalization trends.

The focus of the 2024 FOCAC Summit is more on boosting the green silk road, health silk road, and a digital silk road.

The green silk road will help Africa utilize its rich green energy resources such as solar, hydro, geothermal and wind power to combat the effects of climate change in the continent.

The health silk road is key as Africa's health system during the COVID pandemic proved to be the weakest link in the continent's growth and development. This will also help African countries curb the spread of Mpox.

Lastly, the digital silk road will help Africa tap into the global markets linking the Africa Continental Free Trade Area with other free trade areas such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This will help spur its economic growth in the post-COVID era.

The author is the Executive Director of the China-Africa Center at the Africa Policy Institute.