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| China-Africa economic,trade cooperation |
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I. Current conditions on China-Africa economic ties
China and Africa are cooperative partners to complement each other and seek mutual benefits. The Chinese government has consistently stood for developing economic and trade relations with African countries on the basis of equality and through various forms of pragmatic cooperation to achieve common prosperity.
1. China-Africa friendly ties go deeper.
2006, which marked the 50th founding anniversary of China-Africa diplomatic relations, witnessed a boom of friendly bilateral exchange activities. At the beginning of the year, the Chinese government issued China?s African Policy report, which proposed the construction of a new China-Africa strategic partnership; during the year, President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and senior leader Wu Guanzheng visited 14 African countries successively, and state leaders from 12 African countries visited China; in early November, the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held, marking a new milestone in the annals of China-Africa relations.
By now, China has signed trade agreements with 41 African countries, bilateral agreements on promoting and protecting investment with 29 countries and agreements on the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with 9 countries. Talks on accords with other countries are under way. This will help create a better and steadier policy and legal environment for economic cooperation between the two sides.
2. China-Africa trade grows rapidly.
When China established its diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1956, it had only a 12 million US dollars trade volume with the whole continent. The figure, after exceeding 10 billion dollars in 2000, had been growing at a speed of over 30 percent for five successive years. In 2006, China-Africa trade hit 55.5 billion dollars, up 40 percent year on year. Of them, China?s exports to Africa stood at 26.7 billion dollars, up 43 percent, and imports from Africa stood at 28.8 billion dollars, up 37 percent.
To help with African economy, China continued expanding imports from Africa despite a trade deficit. Within the framework of the Forum on Sino-Africa Cooperation, China exercised zero tariff on commodities under 190 taxation categories originally produced in 28 least developed countries of Africa. In 2006, China imported 250 million dollars worth of such commodities.
3. Investment in Africa grows steadily. The Chinese government encourages various enterprises with competitiveness and credibility to ?go out? and invest in Africa. By the end of 2006, the accumulative Chinese investment in the continent had totaled 11.7 billion dollars. China-invested projects scattered across 49 African countries, covering trade, processing, resource tapping, transportation and agriculture.
Chinese investment has been widely welcomed as it helps boost local economy by creating jobs, bringing in suitable technologies, improving the local capability of independent construction and raising living standards. Incomplete statistics showed that in 2005 alone, Chinese enterprises in Africa created nearly 60,000 jobs directly.
4. Progress achieved in infrastructure construction.
The Chinese government encourages enterprises, with their mature managerial expertise and technologies, to enter into engineering contracts with African countries. Chinese contracts in Africa cover a wide range of national economy: housing construction, pero-chemistry, electric power, transportation, communication, water conservation, metallurgy, and railways. China also sent technicians and managerial personnel to help African countries boost their capability of independent economic construction. Since 2000, Chinese enterprises have contracted in Africa the building of more than 6,000 kms of roads, more than 3,000 kms of railway lines and eight large-and-medium-sized power plants.
5. Noticeable results scored in Chinese aid to Africa
Chinese aid to Africa is sincere and altruistic, without any political conditions attached or interference in the internal affairs of African recipient countries. Over half a century, China has conducted more than 800 aid projects, including 137 for agriculture and 133 for infrastructure, 19 schools, 38 hospitals and a 760,000-seat stadium, and sent nearly 16,000 people in medical teams accumulatively. Besides, within the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China has written off 10.9 billion RMB yuan debts of African countries and trained for them 15,000 personnel of various kinds.
These projects have been warmly welcomed by African governments and people as they help boost local economic and social progress and increase revenue and employment.
6. Forum on China-Africa Cooperation ushers in new era
The China-Africa relations entered a new stage of development upon the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, an effort by both sides to further develop traditional friendship, strengthen South-South cooperation and promote the building of a just, rational international political and economic order.
At the first and second ministerial meetings, the Chinese government proposed a series of major measures aimed at strengthening China-Africa economic cooperation, including the exemption of debts, tariff and staff training. In Nov. 2006, the Beijing Summit and the third ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation opened under unprecedented attention of the international community. This is the largest and highest-level diplomatic event China ever held since the founding of the People?s Republic of China in 1949. More that 5,000 representatives from home and abroad partaked in the Summit, including delegation members led by 35 top state leaders, six heads of government, one vice president and six high-level officials from 48 African countries, more than 200 ministers as well as deputies representing 24 international and regional organizations, including the United Nations and African Union.
At the opening ceremony, Chinese President Hu Jintao proposed eight policy measures aimed at promoting the new China-Africa strategic partnership, saying the Chinese government would take the following eight steps:
1. Double its 2006 assistance to Africa by 2009.
2. Provide 3 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans and 2 billion U.S. dollars of preferential buyer's credits to Africa in the next three years.
3. Set up a China-Africa development fund which will reach 5 billion U.S. dollars to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and provide support to them.
4. Build a conference center for the African Union to support African countries in their efforts to strengthen themselves through unity and support the process of African integration.
5. Write off debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China.
6. Open up China's market further to Africa by increasing from 190 to over 440 the number of export items to China receiving zero- tariff treatment from the least developed countries in Africa having diplomatic ties with China.
7. Establish three to five trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa in the next three years.
8. Over the next three years, train 15,000 African professionals; send 100 senior agro-experts to Africa; set up 10 special agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa; build 30 hospitals in Africa and provide RMB 300 million of grant for providing artemisinin and building 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers to fight malaria in Africa; dispatch 300 youth volunteers to Africa; build 100 rural schools in Africa; and increase the number of Chinese government scholarships to African students from the current 2,000 per year to 4,000 per year by 2009.
Early 2007, President Hu Jintao visited eight African courtiers in an effort to implement the measures proposed, which turned out a tour of friendship and cooperation.
II. How to achieve a win-win China-Africa economic relationship
1. Expand China-Africa trade.
China will accelerate the implementation of zero-tariff treatment to commodities under 442 taxation categories from the least developed African countries, and will continue to expand imports and promote balanced China-Africa trade.
2. Enhance investment in Africa.
China will encourage domestic enterprises to invest in Africa through setting up a China-Africa development fund and overseas economic cooperation zones, so as to help African countries develop industry and manufacture and increase employment and revenue.
3. Widen scope of cooperation.
Both sides will make efforts to expand the scope of cooperation from trade alone to a wide rage of areas including investment, technology and project contract. While tapping traditional fields as infrastructure construction, resource exploration and agriculture, we will also conduct cooperation in new areas as finance, tourism, culture, science and technology.
4. Improve people's lives.
By providing aid, writing off debts, staff training, school building, agricultural demonstration center and malaria prevention center, China hopes to truly help with economic and social development of African countries and improve the living standards of local people.
By People's Daily Online |
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