China tells 53 African ministers her success secrets (3)

Gains so far

The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi on the major day of the event, July 29 had taken time as the host to recall the benefits of the FOCAC since the Johannesburg Summit especially and he rolled out that: “A high-level internal coordination mechanism has been set up and made every effort to advance follow-up actions. And on the Africans, over 30 countries increased synergy with China for the implementation of Summit outcomes.

First, China and Africa have increased high-level mutual visits and enhanced political mutual trust. This year, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Yu Zhengsheng and State Councilor Yang Jiechi visited Africa. On the African side, the presidents of Nigeria, Mozambique, Morocco, Togo and the Republic of Congo have paid state visits to China, and more presidents will come before the end of the year. Interactions have been frequent between governments, political parties, legislatures and militaries of China and Africa, with over 100 visits at or above the provincial and ministerial level, creating a rare boom in mutual visits.

China and Africa enhanced political mutual trust and backed each other on issues concerning their core interests and major concerns. China has firmly supported African countries in independently exploring a development path suited to their own national conditions and spoken out for Africa on international occasions. And African countries have openly endorsed China's just position on the South China Sea issue. China deeply appreciates such valuable political support.

Secondly, China and Africa have advanced mutually beneficial cooperation across the board and achieved encouraging early harvests. Despite the prolonged sluggish performance of the world economy, mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Africa has been flourishing. The FOCAC Johannesburg Summit brought such cooperation to a new stage. China is now deeply involved in Africa's industrialization and agricultural modernization with a focus on financing and investment cooperation.

The China-Africa Fund for Production Capacity Cooperation is up and running with an initial contribution of US$10 billion. The Special Loan for the Development of African SMEs has been bolstered with US$5 billion of additional funding. Close to 10 Chinese financial institutions have provided financing support to the development of African countries and conducted cooperation in the form of currency. Chinese assistance has reached all friendly African countries. Chinese emergency food assistance has been or will be provided to 14 drought-hit African countries.

Rapid progress has taken place in China-Africa production capacity cooperation. China-Africa Production Capacity and Investment Cooperation Forums have been frequently held. China, for the first time, hosted country-specific investment promotions on the occasion of state visits by countries such as Nigeria and Togo. We established platforms for countries like Ethiopia to attract business investments from China. We encouraged provincial governments, including those of Guangdong and Jiangsu, to visit South Africa, Ethiopia and other key countries to explore investment opportunities for production capacity cooperation.

We have signed framework agreements for production capacity cooperation with six countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. A significant number of large-scale infrastructure projects in rail, road, port, airport, electricity, water supply and telecommunications are well underway. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, Africa's first electrified railway financed and constructed by China, will be operational soon. The Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway is expected to be turned over next year. China and six East African countries have reached agreement on jointly building an East African information expressway.

Partial statistics show that China and Africa have signed over 180 various cooperation agreements with a total value of US$32.468 billion since the Summit. This includes US$29.095 billion of commercial loans, accounting for 89.62% of the total amount. During this Coordinators' Meeting, our two sides signed another 60-odd cooperation agreements worth US$18.257 billion, among which US$14.757 billion, or 80. 8%, takes the form of contractual investment by Chinese enterprises in Africa.