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African journalists envision fruitful summit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-02 15:01

African journalists covering the forthcoming Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) have expressed their appreciation of China's long-term assistance to their countries, especially in technology.

Rogerio Sitoe, a Mozambican reporter from the Noticias Daily News said China has not only provided fund assistance, but also technical support, which is a difference with other countries.

The upcoming summit, scheduled for November 4-5, will be the highest-level and the largest meeting between Chinese and African leaders since China and African countries started to forge cooperative ties in the 1950s.

Thousands of overseas reporters, including more than 300 from Africa, are here to cover the upcoming event.

Sitoe said both China and Mozambique are developing countries and share many similarities, adding that China-Mozambique cooperation is established on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

"We hope to learn more agricultural technology and experience from China," he said.

A reporter from Zambia News & Information Services said China has maintained traditional friendship with many African countries. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China has had comprehensive cooperation with Zambia in the fields of economy, agriculture, and construction.

The railway line constructed by China is still regarded as a " shining example" witnessing the close cooperation between China and Zambia, he said.

African reporters considered the summit an opportunity for their countries to learn from China and hoped the summit will foster pragmatic results.

Joe Chebonkeng Kalabubse, a reporter of the Cameroon Radio Television, said that he hopes the summit will provide a platform for "intensifying friendship, intensifying cooperation and intensifying common development" between the two sides.

More than 40 heads of state or government from Africa will attend the summit themed on "friendship, peace, cooperation and development".

FOCAC is a mechanism for collective dialogue and cooperation established by China and Africa to cope with new challenges and facilitate common development.

Since the launch of the FOCAC in 2000, two ministerial conferences have been held in Beijing and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.