Botswana poised to benefit from FOCAC summit
2018 FOCAC projects in progress
The Forum on China- Africa Cooperation ( FOCAC) meeting scheduled for next month in Senegal will provide Botswana and the continent with yet another opportunity for advancing their cooperation.
This was revealed by the Chinese Ambassador to Botswana Wang Xuefeng on Tuesday in an exchange of different topical views with the local media.
Ambassador Wang could not be drawn into discussing details save to say “I will be glad to update the media on the outcomes”.
Answering a question on why China has not yet fulfilled the undertakings made to the Botswana government during the last China- Africa summit, Wang said China and Botswana reached some development consensuses during the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit.
However, confronted by the onslaught of COVID- 19, China and Botswana have experienced major challenges in their bilateral cooperation.
He said at the current stage, fighting COVID has become a top priority and that equitable vaccine distribution is important. The Chinese and Botswana governments have been in contact to balance the anti- pandemic cooperation and implementation of the 2018 FOCAC outcomes.
“It should be noted that some projects of the 2018 FOCAC are still in progress amid the pandemic, such as the construction of China- aid New Kazungula Primary School and the exemption of P27million Loan Debt for Botswana, and the signing of the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation,” Ambassador Wang said.
Asked how the pandemic has affected China- Africa economic relations, and what the impact on trade relations with Botswana has been, Wang said China- Africa trade and investment cooperation is resilient, adding that the China- Africa community of development for all achieved further growth.
Although with COVID- 19, trade volume between China and Africa dropped by 12.17 percent and 10.6 percent year- on- year in the first 10 and 11 months of this year respectively, the decline is narrowing month by month and China is expected to become Africa’s top trading partner for 12 years in a row.
In a medium to long- term analysis, China- Africa trade volume reached US $ 208.7 billion in 2019 and China’s accumulated FDI in Africa reached US$ 49.1 billion, up 20 times and 100 times respectively from 20 years ago. The share of China- Africa trade in Africa’s total foreign trade is steadily increasing, from 12.9 percent in 2017 to 14.7 percent in 2019. With a population of 1.4 billion and over 400 million middle- income earners, China’s total import in goods is expected to exceed US$ 22 trillion in the coming decade, and Africa will benefit even more from China, which is the world’s most promising large market.
Wang said it is worth noting that during the pandemic, Chinese enterprises used digital platforms such as online promotion activities and live streaming to help Africa export more of its specialty products to China.
Cross- border e- commerce platforms such as Alibaba Group’s World Electronic Trade Platform ( eWTP) have given products from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and other countries direct access to Chinese consumers.
He said in May last year, 3,000 packages of Gorilla’s Coffee from Rwanda were swept up in a second on Taobao Live. The third China International Import Expo held in November last year achieved a total intended turnover of US$ 72.62 billion.
Purchases from developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America totalled an intended turnover of more than double the amount of the second CIIE, among which South Africa also signed a new record high amount of contract, with a total value of more than US$ 210 million.
Wang said to help African economies address the impact of COVID- 19, China has signed debt relief agreements with 12 African countries, exempted interest- free loans to 15 countries due at the end of 2020, and actively encouraged the international community, especially the G20, to further extend the debt relief period. The Export- Import Bank of China, as the bilateral official creditor, has signed debt relief agreements with 11 African countries.
He explained that the impact of the virus on China- Africa cooperation is only temporary. China- Africa friendship has been standing strong for a long time, and he believes the win- win cooperation will never stop. China is expected to be the only major economy with positive growth this year.
Africa is also actively promoting economic recovery and reconstruction. “We believe that China- Africa cooperation post- COVID- 19 will have brighter prospects and greater potential, and a closer China- Africa community with a shared future will bear more fruits,” Wang said.
As for resuming international travel in an orderly fashion, Wang said that starting from the 15th of March 2021 China provides visa facilitation to incoming foreigners who have received Chinese vaccines and hold a vaccination certificate.
He said that China has been in close communication with other countries to discuss a reciprocal arrangement for vaccination. As long as a measure helps to prevent and control the epidemic and facilitate people- to- people exchanges, China is open to it.
Wang said his government attaches high importance to vaccine safety and has taken measures in accordance with the law to crack down on illegal production and sale of counterfeit vaccines, smuggling, illegal vaccination, and other vaccine- related crimes, and in the meantime, China is expected to enhance law enforcement cooperation with relevant countries to prevent the spreading of such crimes.
Giving a full update on the ChinaBotswana anti- pandemic response since the start of COVID- 19, Wang said since the outbreak of COVID- 19, China has provided 13 batches of emergency material assistance to help Botswana’s anti- pandemic response, including surgical masks, PPEs, test kits, 1500 infrared thermometers, 94 ventilators, 78 oxygen generators and 200,000 doses of vaccines.
China also dispatched the 46- member medical team to Botswana to fight the pandemic with local medical workers shoulder to shoulder.
China has also helped the government to procure 200,000 doses of vaccines from China and is now helping with the second batch of vaccine purchases.
At a multilateral level, Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced that in the course of this year, China will strive to provide two billion doses of vaccines to the world, and will donate US$ 100 million to the COVAX Facility for distributing vaccines to developing countries.
Sharing on some strategies that anchored China’s victory against the COVID- 19 pandemic, Wang said faced with the unknown, unexpected, and devastating disease of COVID- 19, China launched a resolute battle to prevent and control its spread.
The Communist Party of China ( CPC) and the Chinese government have addressed the epidemic as a top priority and taken swift action.
CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken personal command, planned the response, overseen the general situation, and acted decisively, pointing the way forward in the fight against the epidemic.
General Secretary Xi Jinping strengthened the centralised leadership in the response efforts and stressed the need to put people’s lives and health first. “This has bolstered the Chinese people’s confidence and rallied their strength”.
He said China adopted the most thorough, rigorous, and comprehensive prevention and control measures on scales never seen before. China enforced quarantine and isolation and mobilised medical resources across the country to find every infected person and treat every patient.
Wang said in June 2020, his government released a white paper titled, “Fighting COVID- 19: China in Action,” aiming to keep a record of China’s efforts in fighting against the virus and to share its experience with the rest of the world.