Asian-African summit to focus on pragmatic economic, trade cooperation

Six decades later, Asia and Africa are home to some of the world's fastest-growing emerging markets.

Asia and Africa are "the developing engine" and "hopeful continents," said Yuri O Thamrin, Indonesian Foreign Ministry's Director General for Asia and Africa, "Foreign direct investment and trade have increased tremendously between the continents, growing from $2.8 billion in 1990 to 270 billion dollars by 2012."

The countries in both regions want to take a greater role in setting global development agendas, he said.

"What we need to do right now with Bandung is to move away from just political struggle and make sure that we strengthen and fortify economic cooperation, we need more economic cooperation into these world than before," said Pakamisa Sifuba, South African ambassador to the ASEAN.

The Ambassador of India to Indonesia Gurjit Singh said that the commemoration conference should solve the challenges such as the weak global economic recovery and uneven distribution of global wealth, adding that all the participants should promote the maritime connectivity and multilateral energy and security cooperation under the framework of Asian-African conference.

Thamrin said that both continents do not have mechanism to implement the Asian-African economic cooperation until the declaration of the NAASP.

The commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Asian-African conference will further promote Asian and African countries to seek cooperation opportunities and step up efforts on investment cooperation.

Umar Juoro, Chairman of the Center for Information and Development Studies in Jakarta, said that China's "Belt and Road" initiative will bring a lot of benefit to other countries in the region and will provide a new model of mutual benefit and common development for Asian-African countries.

The "Belt and Road" initiative and the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will help Asian and African countries develop their infrastructure and upgrade their connectivity capability, which meet their requirements of economic development and go with the tide of win-win cooperation, said Li Zhuohui, an Indonesian political analyst.

Therefore, the "Belt and Road" initiative which connects Asia, Europe, Africa and adjacent seas and the AIIB are expected to be discussed in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Bandung conference, said Li.

"Growing together is a must," said Marsudi. "One day we want to see that the cooperation will not only narrow the development gap among countries but will contribute to world peace and prosperity."