Onevision

FOCAC and the Belt and Road Initiative are integrated in both philosophy and mechanism

it has been nearly four years since the Chinese Government first proposed the Belt and Road Initiative. In this time, the initiative has grown into China’s calling card of peaceful development and has been widely received worldwide. Thanks to its openness and inclusiveness, the initiative has spread beyond the countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes to involve more than 100 countries and international organizations. Africa, a continent with rich resources, huge market potential and robust demands for infrastructure construction, is included in the Belt and Road Initiative. The continent’s development ambitions are therefore in synergy with this initiative as it grasps the opportunity to advance modernization and industrialization. The Forum on China-africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an engine driving Sino-african cooperation since its establishment in 2000, is increasingly integrating with the Belt and Road Initiative in terms of philosophy and mechanism, and is playing a leading role in China-africa partnership as a cooperation mechanism. cooperation. Instead of blindly investing in projects, China and Africa will work together to build pilot industrial zones that will produce sustainable profits and social benefits, and then apply the successful models to other places.

To realize green development, production capacity cooperation between China and Africa should be conducted on the premise of preserving Africa’s ecological environment. No energy-intensive industries with high pollution or obsolete industrial capacity should be transferred to Africa.

The safe development targets promoting peace and security on the continent through advancing its economy. It mirrors China’s outlook on world security.

The concept of open development shows Chinaafrica cooperation is open and inclusive and that China welcomes the global community to participate in this cooperation.

Therefore, the five major concepts for China-africa cooperation under the FOCAC framework are consistent with that of the Belt and Road Initiative, which promotes policy coordination, and facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds as the five major goals.

In terms of mechanism, FOCAC is the regional cooperation mechanism to carry out the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Along with regional multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as Shanghai Cooperation Organization, CHINA-ASEAN Summit, Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation and China-arab States Cooperation Forum, FOCAC is promoting the implementation and advancement of the initiative in Africa.