This year marks the 15th anniversary of the forum, and it is the first time the ministerial meeting has been upgraded to a leader’s summit.
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Focac has been the institutional vehicle of those relations, politically, economically, culturally and otherwise.
“There are no sanctions with China and those banks that are affected by the USA sanctions can open direct currency trading accounts with Chinese banks without any upheavals or risk that their money can be seized”, Chanakira said.
Phyllis Johnson, interim director of the Institute for China-Africa Studies in Southern Africa, said the agreements to be signed on financial support and joint co-operation will take bilateral relations to a much higher level.
That had been – and largely remains – one where China mainly imports vast quantities of African commodities and mainly exports vast quantities of manufactured goods to Africa.
China and African countries are developing and have a total population of over 2.4 billion.
Liu noted that China and its African allies share a common past and destiny, adding that the FOCAC summit will endorse new measures to accelerate socio-economic transformation in Africa.
Mutual cooperation has entered a new era, Wang said, calling on the two sides to combine China’s advantages in development experience and production with those of Africa in natural and human resources. “Africans will always be friendly and loyal to our Chinese friends”, he said.
“It shows that the Chinese government is seeing a brighter future for Zimbabwe and they are showing confidence in the economy”. But more needed to be done.
“The idea of development-oriented peace is manifested in China’s increased involvement in peacekeeping, conflict resolution and humanitarian intervention in Africa”, notes Kagwanja. The Summit is preceded by the Sixth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC.
In addition to bolstering economic ties and investing in infrastructure projects, China has been expanding its role in boosting the strife-torn continent’s security.
Wang said China’s shift in focus would address Africa’s two most urgent tasks, accelerating industrialisation and agricultural modernisation. The private sector also signed deals with AVM Africa set for a major transformation which will impact not only the transport, but agriculture sectors.
China, he said, is willing to join hands with African countries to support each other and advance together along the path of development.
China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor, pumping in $600 million dollars into the country in 2013, according to the Chinese Ambassador to Harare, Huang Ping.
Noting that the two countries have supported each other and carried out honest cooperation during their respective development endeavor, Xi stressed that China will never forget its old friends.
The Chinese navy has been providing escorts for merchant shipping since 2009 to guard against pirates in the Gulf of Aden and off the waters of Somalia.
Another significant deal is for the long awaited construction of a new parliament in Mt Hampden which translates years of just talk to action while more deals were signed in the wildlife, pharmaceutical sectors.
Africa has abundant renewable energy sources such as hydro power, geothermal, biomass, solar and wind energy, but it has not yet exploited them due to lack of funding.
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Clearly China does not care about our freedom and continues to strengthen the hand of pariah states in Africa while purporting to respect their sovereignty.
