Delegates to a one-day conference on China-Africa cooperation at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) agreed that the forum helped to strengthen friendship and cooperation between China and Africa.
Opening the conference on Thursday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tanzania’s Minister of Trade and Industrial Development, Omar Shabaan, said that FOCAC, established in 2000, is helping Africa to achieve industrialization.
FOCAC was an effective platform and multilateral mechanism for China and African countries to hold collective consultations and carry out pragmatic cooperation.
“FOCAC is elevating the status of African countries in global industry and supply chains,” Shabaan said at the conference jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania and the Center for International Policy – Africa (CIP), a regional think-tank that analyzes global pressures and challenges and contributes to actionable measures that leaders and citizens can adapt to address them.
Shabaan said Africa’s confidence in Sino-African cooperation is a result of China’s favorable and viable policy towards the continent, which is based on sincerity, equality, mutual benefit and common development aimed at building a community with a shared future for humanity. .
Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Chen Mingjian said that FOCAC is a successful example of mutual assistance and common development among developing countries.
Chen said that since the establishment of FOCAC, Chinese companies have built more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads, nearly 1,000 bridges, nearly 100 ports and a large number of hospitals and schools in Africa, which have made outstanding contributions to improving infrastructure and strengthen capacity for independent development in Africa.
“FOCAC is an important pillar for building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era,” said the Chinese envoy.
She said that in 2021, China-Africa trade volume was US$254.2 billion, and China’s stock of direct investment in Africa exceeded US$56 billion, 25 times and 100 times that of 2000, when the forum was established, respectively.
Wu Peng, the Secretary General of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC and Director General of the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, said in the past 22 years, with the continuous capacity building mechanism and enriching content, FOCAC has made a flag of China-Africa relations and South-South cooperation.
Speaking in a video message, Wu said China firmly believes that developing countries should be more confident to break out a new pace suited to their national conditions towards modernization.
Wang Huiyao, chairman of the Center for China and Globalization, said in his video presentation that the China-Africa relationship is moving in a direction of prosperity and wealth.
“China-Africa has achieved fruitful cooperation in terms of trade, investment, infrastructure, construction and more,” Wang said.
The Permanent Representative of the African Union (AU) in China, Rahamtalla Osman Elnor, said in a video presentation that the 8th FOCAC ministerial conference, held in Dakar, Senegal, announced initiatives and commitments for important new development for the African continent.
Elnor said it is important for African governments and companies to digest initiatives and commitments and ensure implementation of what has been agreed.
CIP President and CEO Omar Mjenga said the China-Africa friendship was not an overnight achievement, nor was it a gift from above.
“Friendship has been fostered over the years as China and Africa have supported each other and supported each other in difficult times,” said Mjenga.
He added that “it is during these difficult and difficult times, when no one was ready to support the continent, that China came to the attention of many African countries despite their poor economic situation at that time.”
Indeed, China and Africa have stood together through success and adversity, setting an example for building a global community with a shared future, said Mjenga.
Conference delegates included former Tanzanian ambassadors to China, ambassadors and high commissioners representing their countries in the
