The 16th Senior Officials Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Photo: Liu Yang/GT

China and Africa have achieved fruitful outcomes of the nine programs including medical and health, poverty alleviation and benefits for farmers, progress in trade and digital innovation, which were proposed during the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Dakar, Senegal in 2021.
 
Deng Li, an official from the China’s Foreign Ministry, made the remarks during the 16th Senior Officials Meeting of the FOCAC on Monday in Beijing. He noted that global uncertainties including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine crisis and radical monetary policies set by major world powers will not change China-Africa relations, and the cooperation between the two parties will certainly usher in a better future.

In 2021, China announced to work closely with African countries to implement nine programs. These cover the medical and health program and those on poverty reduction and agricultural development, trade promotion, investment promotion, digital innovation, green development, capacity building, cultural and people-to-people exchange as well as peace and security.

Over the years, the two parties have reaped fruitful achievements in the nine areas. So far, China has sent a total of 23,000 medical team members to Africa, who have treated 230 million patients. 

In the past decade, 7,456 African trainees have received agricultural training in China. Through projects such as sending Chinese agricultural experts to Africa, more than 50,000 Africans have been trained and 23 agricultural demonstration centers have been built.

In the field of trade, China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 14 years. In 2022, the trade volume between China and Africa reached $282 billion, reaching a new historical high. China has offered zero-tariff treatment to 98 percent of taxable items exported to China by 21 African countries, helping more quality African goods gain access to the Chinese market. 

In addition, China has carried out South-South cooperation on tackling climate change, and to date has signed 15 cooperation agreements in this field with 14 African countries. China has supported African countries in building a large number of clean energy projects, facilitating the green energy transformation of the continent.

The Kaleta Hydropower Station in Guinea, which was financed and constructed by China, has a total of capacity of 245,000 kilowatts, greatly alleviating the power shortage in Conakry, capital of Guinea. The project image has been printed on the back of the new version of the 20,000 Guinean franc note.

Deng noted that the surging wealth and growth of China's economy will expand new space and provide new impetus for global economic development, including that of Africa. Next year, China will host the 9th Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC, which is a major event in China-Africa cooperation and has attracted great attention from all sides.

“I hope that we will take this meeting as an opportunity to comprehensively review the implementation of the outcomes of the 8th ministerial meeting, and collectively put forward our suggestions and proposals on the organization of the new one, in a bid to make the 9th Ministerial Meeting of the FOCAC a triumphant event of unity and friendship between China and Africa, and to establish a new milestone in the development of China-Africa relations,” Deng noted.

Oumar Demba Ba, Minister, Diplomatic Adviser to President of Senegal, said during the meeting that China-Africa cooperation has remarkable achievements and great potential, and the China-Africa partnership has become an important pillar of today's international partnership.

“Nigeria is very optimistic about the Chinese economic growth and that’s why we in Africa are very much interested in focus to have partnership with China to move forward.  So it's a very good outlook to look forward to,” an official of Nigeria delegation told the Global Times on the sidelines of the meeting on Monday.

An official from Tanzania told the Global Times that as China emerges from the pandemic, its economy will continue going, and as usual become one of the major forces in the world in the coming years. “The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is a very good initiative which involves many countries across all the continents. [Under the initiative], the amount of trade in the world will continue to grow,” he noted.