Working together
From the outset, FOCAC has been playing a significant role in advancing the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Africa. Although it was proposed 13 years earlier than the Belt and Road Initiative, FOCAC has kept abreast of new developments in China, Africa and the global community in order to strengthen its framework. New philosophies and mechanisms to further deepen the bilateral cooperation were proposed and adopted over the time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to roll out 10 major plans to boost cooperation with Africa at the Johannesburg Summit of FOCAC held in South Africa in December 2015. The plan covered important areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services and people-topeople exchanges. In July 2016, China put forward five major cooperation concepts of common, intensive, green, safe and open development at the Coordinators’ Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, which were hailed by African participants. The concepts have been guiding bilateral cooperation ever since.
The concept of common development specifically calls for win-win cooperation between the two sides, morphing China’s development with that of Africa’s.
The intensive development aims for sustainable