Ministers and representatives from China and 48 African
countries held a ministerial meeting in Beijing Friday to make
final preparations for a high-profile summit due to open
Saturday.
Participants discussed and passed an action plan, laying out
cooperative programs between China and Africa from 2007 to 2009
under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The meeting, the third since 2000, also discussed a draft
declaration and decided to submit it to the FOCAC Beijing Summit, a
landmark event which leaders from 48 African countries are to
participate in.
The declaration is expected to be passed at the summit, which is
themed on the bases of "friendship, peace, cooperation and
development."
These two documents will give guiding principles for the
development of China-Africa relations and their future cooperation,
sources with the Foreign Ministry said.
Vice Premier Wu Yi lauded the 50-year-long China-Africa
relations at the opening ceremony of the meeting, saying that the
FOCAC, set up in 2000, is a key strategic move by China and Africa
to help face challenges in the new century, promote traditional
friendship and enhance cooperation.
Wu said the FOCAC had launched a series of cooperative plans and
formed a key platform with effective mechanisms for collective
dialogue and pragmatic cooperation.
"The FOCAC and its development will provide useful experience
for South-South cooperation," Wu said.
Wu said the two sides should always instill new vitality into
the Forum, draw up plans for future cooperation and related
activities to turn the Forum into a pacesetter in promoting
Sino-African friendship.
"The two sides should give full play to the role of the Forum as
a mechanism of collective dialogue, keep close consultation,
develop new consensus, closely study new trends in cooperation,
expand common interests and appropriately address new problems
arising in the course of cooperation, so as to turn the Forum into
an effective platform for safeguarding the common interests of the
two sides," she said.
The meeting was jointly presided over by Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Seyoum
Mesfin, Ethiopia's Minister of Finance and Economic Development
Sufian Ahmed. Ethiopia is currently the FOCAC's co-chair
country.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Seyoum said China had given
Africa a lot of support in the fight against colonialism and for
independence as well as having scrupulously observed principles of
international law.
Seyoum called this the reason "why the forum has made such
progress and why on the African side there existed full commitments
to making the process a resounding success."
He said the forum's elevation to summit level "is a
demonstration of the commitment of both sides to the further
expansion of the cooperation between Africa and China. It is an
affirmation of the conviction on the part of both that the
consolidation of the process is in the interest of both China and
Africa."
Seyoum stated that since the ministerial forum was launched six
years ago, China and Africa have carried out cooperation in areas
including trade, investment and human resources. "It has also
created close coordination between the two sides on international
issues."
"The last three years have witnessed an accelerated growth in
the volume of trade between Africa and China. The potential in this
area is enormous," he said.
Seyoum also encouraged more inter-personal relations between
Africa and China, saying "there is no better way ensuring the
sustainability of a partnership than ensuring that it is rooted in
people-to-people relations."
The trade volume between Africa and China rocketed to US$39.7
billion in 2005 after breaking the US$10 billion mark in 2000.
Under the Forum's framework, China has canceled debt amounting
to 10. 5 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) incurred by 31 Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries in Africa, and has given zero-tariff
treatment to 190 categories of import commodities from 29 African
countries.
During the second ministerial conference in Addis-Ababa three
years ago, China pledged to help train 10,000 professionals for
Africa, a program due for completion this year as scheduled.
At the upcoming Beijing Summit, leaders are expected to focus on
economic cooperation, professional training and business
investment, according to sources with the Foreign Ministry.
The objective of the Summit is to build a new type of
China-Africa strategic partnership featuring political equality and
trust, mutually beneficial economic cooperation and cultural
exchanges, the sources said.
The fourth FOCAC ministerial meeting will be held in 2009 in
Egypt.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2006)