China, Africa strive further for common development

JOHANNESBURG - China proposed on Friday to lift the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, and will roll out 10 major plans to boost cooperation in the coming three years to carry out the upgrade.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made the announcement here in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the ongoing Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), sending a strong message to the entire world that China and Africa are further striving for win-win cooperation and common development.

The two-day summit, marking the 15th anniversary of the founding of the FOCAC mechanism and co-chaired by Xi and his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma, also witnessed China's release of an Africa policy paper, the second of its kind since 2006, aimed at further clarifying "China's determination and goodwill to develop friendly and cooperative relations with Africa."

Even long before the inception of the FOCAC mechanism, China and Africa had been a community of common destiny bonded by shared historical experiences and struggle, standing side by side in all weathers and offering help to each other. The two sides' pursuit of win-win cooperation and common development has never attached any political strings.

The establishment of the FOCAC mechanism in 2000 ushered in a new era of mutual benefit and common development for China and Africa, leading to the blossoming of bilateral cooperation in various fields.

"China-Africa relations have today reached a stage of growth unmatched in history," Xi said Friday.

In the economic and trade sector, statistics show that in 2014, two-way trade exceeded 221.9 billion US dollars and China's investment stock in Africa surpassed 30 billion dollars, a 22- and 60-fold increase respectively over the figures in 2000. Meanwhile, the share of China-Africa trade in Africa's total foreign trade has increased from 3.82 percent to 20.5 percent.

By the end of 2014, China's total investment stock in Africa had reached 101 billion US dollars, resulting in more than 3,100 Africa-based enterprises.

China has also provided finance and technical skills to help bridge Africa's infrastructure deficit.

Thanks to China's financial support, an estimated 5,675 km of railways and 4506.9 km of roads either had been built or were under construction across Africa by September this year, along with other infrastructural facilities such as schools and hospitals.

In peacekeeping, China has dispatched the largest number of peacekeepers to African hotspots to maintain peace and stability, and it will provide a total of 60 million US dollars in free aid to the African Union (AU) to improve Africa's peacekeeping ability, Xi announced Friday.

Within the framework of the FOCAC, which groups China, 50 African countries that have established diplomatic ties with China and the AU Commission, cooperation has also flourished in other areas like health, agriculture, arts and culture.

The Chinese government provides Africa with more than 7,000 government scholarships each semester and holds over 100 multilateral and bilateral technical and management training programs and senior officials' workshops for Africa each year.

In his visit to Africa in 2013, Xi put forth the principles of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, with the purpose of closely combining efforts to help Africa achieve economic independence and sustainable development and thus achieve win-win cooperation and common development with China.

At this summit, Xi's proposal for lifting the new type of the China-Africa strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, and his announcement of the initiatives meant to boost China-Africa cooperation in the coming three years testify to China's strong resolve and goodwill to achieve win-win cooperation and common development for China and Africa.

Furthermore, China will offer 60 billion US dollars of funding support to ensure smooth implementation of the initiatives, which will focus on helping African countries break the three development bottlenecks of backward infrastructure, talent shortage and inadequate funding, accelerate industrialization and agricultural modernization, and realize independent and sustainable development.

Themed Africa-China Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development, this summit is set to become an important landmark in the development of bilateral ties and open a new era of win-win cooperation and common development for the two sides.