Sino-african Ties Gather Momentum

The year 2019 has seen closer ties between China and African countries, as numerous events promoting bilateral cooperation in various aspects took place. Under the South-south cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative and other Sino-african cooperation mechanisms, such as the Forum on China-africa Cooperation (FOCAC), are linking China and African countries in a China-africa community with a shared future.

It was the first year in which the eight major initiatives announced at the FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2018 were implemented. Backed with $60 billion, these initiatives are well aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, a blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.

Trade facilitation between China and African countries has seen great progress in 2019. The First China-africa Economic and Trade Expo in June and the Second China International Import Expo in November are widely believed to be the major events that are opening the Chinese market even wider to African countries, contributing to China-africa trade balance.

In 2020, poverty alleviation will be a focus for China as the Chinese Government has determined to end poverty throughout the country by the end of this year. In this context, poverty alleviation will also be one of the focuses for cooperation between China and African countries. China is the largest developing country and Africa is the continent with the biggest concentration of developing countries. Thus, development is the major task for both sides and more efforts should be made in poverty alleviation.

One example of cooperation in this area took place in November 2019 when the FOCAC Africa-china Poverty Reduction and Development Conference was held in Kampala, Uganda. Under the theme of Partnership for Transformation in Africa, this conference was held to share China’s poverty alleviation experience with African countries. In China, more than 13 million people have been lifted out of poverty annually since 2012.

Agriculture will be another focus for Chinaafrica cooperation in 2020. President Xi Jinping announced at the FOCAC Beijing Summit that China would support Africa in achieving general food security by 2030 and work with Africa to formulate and implement a program of action to promote China-africa cooperation on agricultural modernization. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China is working with the African Union to formulate a cooperation plan for China-africa agricultural modernization. The cooperation plan, and an action plan, will be launched this year. In addition, a China-africa agricultural commission will also be established along with the launch of a China-africa agricultural cooperation forum.

The year 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the FOCAC mechanism, so it is reasonable to expect that the Chinaafrica cooperation will benefit more people in the year ahead. CA