China, Africa map out win-win strategy

JOHANNESBURG – Chinese president Xi Jinping and African leaders rounded off a landmark summit here on Saturday with a unanimous consensus to upgrade China-Africa relations backed by a road map for further boosting mutually beneficial cooperation and development.

The leaders’ meeting, of cials and ob- servers from across the region say, has not only ushered the world’s second-largest country and “most promising continent” into a new era of development, but once again testi ed to China’s brotherly friendship and genuine partnership with Africa.

In his concluding remarks at the sum- mit, the second of the 15-year-old Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Xi announced that he and the dozens of participating African leaders reached a unanimous agreement to lift the China- Africa relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

The upgrade, proposed by Xi on Fri- day in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony, came nine years after China and African countries decided at the rst FOCAC summit in Beijing to establish a new type of China-Africa strategic partner- ship featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchanges.

In support of the historic progress,African leaders endorsed Xi’s appeal to strengthen the five “major pillars” of political equal- ity and mutual trust, win-win economic cooperation, mutually enriching cultural exchanges, mutual assistance in security, and solidarity and coordination in international affairs.

To realise the upgrade, the two sides also agreed to carry out 10 major cooperation plans in the next three years in the areas of industrialisation, agricultural modernisa- tion, infrastructure construction, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, people-to- people exchanges, and peace and security.

The programmes, he pointed out when proposing them on Friday, will focus on helping African countries break the three development bottlenecks of backward infrastructure, talent shortage and inadequate funding, accelerate industrialisation and agricultural modernization, and realize independent and sustainable development.

As regards the lack of skilled personnel, Xi announced that China will establish a number of regional vocational education centres and several capacity-building colleges for Africa, train 200 000 technicians for African countries, and provide the continent with 40 000 training opportunities in China.

– Nampa-Xinhua