Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged $60 billion to development in Africa, as part of what Chinese and African leaders have called a “win-win cooperation”.
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President Muhammadu Buhari met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
South African President Jacob Zuma, who co-chaired the summit with Xi, said in his closing remarks that the principles underlying the FOCAC partnership are “sincerity, mutual trust, equality, win-win cooperation, and mutual benefit”.
South Africa is the last leg of Xi’s ongoing three-nation tour, which started in Paris where President Xi attended the opening ceremony of a highly anticipated U.N. climate change conference, and Zimbabwe for his first state visit to the all-weather friendly country.
Despite a major slowdown at home, which has seen Chinese demand for African exports plummet – a vital source of foreign exchange earnings for the continent – the main message is that despite economic challenges, China’s commitment to Africa is long term.
China will negotiate free-trade agreements with Africa to promote imports from the continent and support the agriculture industry to help create more local jobs, Mr. Xi said.
Zhong Jinahua, a Chinese diplomat at the summit, brushed off concerns about the recent drop in investment into Africa.
Zimbabwean President and African Union Chairman Robert Mugabe praised China for its support.
Matjila said what South Africa appreciated most was that the US60 billion would go to such a wide range of development sectors, but also that it would be focused on human capital development – “because that’s the insurance of the future” – and to the productive sector of the economy, including manufacturing, beneficiation, and industrialisation.
“We support the active participation of Chinese enterprises in Africa’s infrastructure development in areas such as railways, roads, regional aviation, ports, electricity and telecommunications to enhance Africa’s capacity for sustainable development, ‘ he said. Figures indicate that Africa needs 93 billion USA dollar to upgrade its infrastructure and China’s help has come at a right time”, he added.
He said if the West that colonized Africa has ears, they should hear.
China’s top envoy says there’s no place on earth, not even China, that is completely safe for business.
He pointed out to Egypt’s winning of a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council, saying that Egypt was looking forward to supporting China to obtain the membership of anti-terrorism committee of the council.
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Xi reaches to shake Mugabe’s hand during the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Sandton, Johannesburg. Many African countries have as a result forged deep diplomatic ties with Beijing, and spoken admiringly of that authoritarian model of economic development.
