Scholars debate moving Africa forward

CHINESE President Xi Jinping agreed with African leaders at the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation Summit last year to deepen people-to-people exchange and to facilitate exchanges on governance and socio-economic development.

This promise has been kept with the official opening of the China Africa Institute (CAI) in Beijing this April, and with the Symposium on Governance and Socio-economic Development co-hosted by the Human Sciences

Research Council (HSRC) and the CAI this week in Tshwane. President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Xie Fuzhan led a delegation to South Africa this week to attend the symposium which was attended by government officials, experts and scholars from China and the continent.

“We need to create the opportunity to share ideas on where to go and how to get there,” Chinese Ambassador Lin Songtian said in his keynote address.

He credited China’s unparalleled development success in such a short time to its governance capacity, and the commitment of the Communist Party of China to “put people first”.

Songtian noted that China had achieved long-term social and political stability, which is a precondition for prosperity and rapid development.

He highlighted China’s achievements such as its annual average growth rate of 9.5%, and its per capita gross domestic product having gone from $35 in 1949, to $156 in 1978, to $10000 (R146 192) in 2019.

Fewer than 3% of the Chinese population now lives in poverty, and the country is the largest trader and manufacturer, has the largest foreign exchange reserves, and sends $1.9trillion in Foreign Direct Investment out of the country.

“If China could achieve such success, why not Africa?” Songtian asked. “We must work together for common prosperity. The West will never agree because we jump over them.”

The purpose of the 10 major co-operation plans of Focac is to help the African continent facilitate industrialisation and modernisation.

Fuzhan argued that China’s governance experience provided a reference for those who wanted to accelerate development.

“China respects development models that suit development conditions,” Fuzhan said.

Chief executive of the HSRC Craig Soudien called this week’s conference “historic”, and hailed the creation of the CAI, calling it a major platform for collaboration to bring together policymakers.