Building Blocks

ACoordinators’ Meeting of the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of FOCAC Johannesburg Summit was held in Beijing on July 28-29. The purpose of the meeting initialized by the co-chairs of the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, China and South Africa, was to take stock of the implementation of the 2016-18 Action Plan agreed in Johannesburg in December 2015. Of particular note was the implementation of the FOCAC Johannesburg Action Plan’s five pillars and the identified areas of cooperation within 10 major economic and trade domains. The dominating theme of the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Action Plan was the focus on industrialization and agricultural modernization which were proposed at the Johannesburg Summit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Steady progress According to this Coordinators’ Meeting, over the past six months, progress has already been made as a high-level internal African coordination mechanism has been set up among more than 30 countries to increase synergy with China for the implementation of the Summit outcomes. China, on the other hand, has established the China-africa Production Capacity Cooperation Fund which is up and running with an initial contribution of $10 billion. The Special Loan for the Development of African SMES has been bolstered with $5 billion of additional funding. According to State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who gave a keynote speech at the Coordinators’ Meeting’s opening ceremony, partial statistics indicate that China and Africa have signed over 180 various cooperation agreements with a total value of $32.5 billion since the Summit. Moreover, China has reached agreement with the African Union Commission on cooperation with the African Center for Disease Control and with countries such as South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria on scientific and technological cooperation.

The Coordinators’ Meeting is a very timely affair because implementation oversight is essential for any project to succeed. Particularly since the continent needs to strengthen its political will and capacity to meet the requirements necessary