Addressing bottlenecks

The specific cooperation blueprint in place revolves mostly around industrialization.

“The 10 cooperation plans include a China-africa industrialization plan, an agricultural modernization plan and an infrastructure plan, which will address the bottlenecks holding back Africa’s development such as inadequate infrastructure and lack of talents,” said He Wenping, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Under the China-africa industrialization plan, China has signed cooperation agreements with countries on building trade and economic cooperation zones, said Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, while delivering a speech on the progress China has made in implementing the new economic and trade measures of the 10 cooperation plans at the Coordinators’ Meeting. “The expansion project of the China-egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has started, and Ethiopia has launched the Hawassa Industrial Park,” he added.

China’s financial support has helped address Africa’s funding shortages and laid the foundation for development in all sectors, according to Gao. An additional capital of $5 billion has been injected into the Special Loan for the Development of African Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises since the Johannesburg Summit. China has extended $100 million in loans for five projects in five African countries, while the CADFUND has invested another $100 million in seven projects in six African countries.

And at the top of the agenda in the thrust of Chinaafrica industrial cooperation are skills development and capacity building. Since the summit last year, China has trained more than 30,000 African technical personnel on site and hosted more than 6,000 officials and technical staff in 150 multilateral and bilateral training programs in China, said Gao in his report. “China will also help Africa set up 24 regional vocational education centers and schools for capacity building,” he said.

In an effort to see China’s development progress first hand, a group of more than 90 participants, including African ministers and ambassadors to China, visited China-singapore Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province on July 30.

“We are impressed by how Suzhou has developed its industrial parks in a short period of time, and how this generates modernization, industrialization and job creation, and this is what Africa is trying to emulate,” said Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s Coordinator of Implementing Agreements at the Johannesburg Summit and Deputy Director General of the country’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

“What better partner [to] have than a country that has experienced it and [is] now willing to share the experience with us? That’s why the partnership is so intense,” he added.

liujian@chinafrica.cn