China-Africa cooperation brings positive energy to world development
Note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs".
A meeting was held in Beijing this week that focused on the implementation of the outcomes of last year's Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In his letter to the gathering, China's President Xi Jinping shared his hopes that the participants could uphold the principle of collaboration and build even stronger ties between China and Africa. The meeting will be followed on Thursday by the opening of the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in the city of Changsha.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan poses for a group photo during a group meeting with the heads of African delegations attending the Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2019. [Photo: Xinhua]
In September last year, the Beijing Summit became a milestone in the history of relations between China and Africa. Leaders from both sides came together to find ways to work jointly on industrial development, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, and security. They came up with a blueprint, and now the challenge becomes its implementation.
Substantial progress has already been made in building a strong and lasting partnership between the two sides. China established the Africa Institute, a national-level think tank. China has worked with African countries to finalize plans for more than 880 cooperation projects to be implemented over the next three years. Bilateral trade last year was worth 204.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 20 percent on the previous year, and China marked its 10th anniversary of being Africa's largest trading partner. So far, 40 African countries and the African Union have signed up to China's Belt and Road Initiative. And projects such as the new Mombasa–Nairobi railway and the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone are playing an important role in enhancing Africa's economic and social development. It's not hard to see why the leaders of Kenya, Rwanda, and other countries have refuted the claims that China is engaging in debt-trap diplomacy in Africa, or why Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said in Beijing on Tuesday that China and Africa are long-term friends.
China is the word's largest developing country, and Africa is the part of the world with the greatest concentration of developing countries. Together, China and Africa account for one-third of the world's population. Their development prospects will directly shape the future of the world, which is why the increasingly strong cooperation between China and Africa is globally significant.
The African Union's 2063 Agenda will see the construction of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will incorporate more than 50 countries. China's Belt and Road Initiative is effectively aligned with the development strategies of the African Union, and also the development plans of many individual African nations. It can also help to advance the continent towards meeting the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At a time when unilateralism and trade protectionism are on the rise, China and Africa have joined hands in the fight to defend the multilateral world order. African political figures, such as Uganda's President Museveni, have highlighted the dangers of unilateralism. And voices in both parts of the world are calling for closer coordination in multilateral affairs, such as the work of the United Nations.
China and Africa are at an important stage in their development. Economic growth is continuing, and the people in both parts of the globe are advancing towards a future of improving livelihoods. Both sides share common development goals, and so by enhancing political mutual trust, sharing what they've learned from their development experience, and improving coordination on international affairs, China and Africa will make an important contribution to increasing the strength of developing countries and creating new models of international relations in search of positive energy for development.