The eighth session of the Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) was held from November 29 to 30, 2021 at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center (Cicas), in Diamniadio (Senegal). Organized in hybrid mode, this meeting was attended by African and Chinese heads of state, government officials concerned, representatives of institutions, chambers of commerce and industry, eminent entrepreneurs from the business community, representatives of SMEs. And resulted in the adoption of a document on Vision 2035 of China-Africa Cooperation.
Placed under the theme “Deepening the Sino-African partnership and promoting sustainable development to build a shared future community between China and Africa, in the new era”, the opening ceremony was co-chaired in person. by Senegalese President Macky Sall and aloof by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
At the start of his circumstantial statement, the Senegalese Head of State proposed a roadmap and expressed the wish that particular attention be paid to the various priorities, in particular, the strengthening of pharmaceutical and medical sovereignty, the pursuit of efforts to modernize agriculture to ensure collective food sovereignty for economic emergence, the strengthening of technical and vocational training, apprenticeship of trades and the blossoming of digital talents to support employment, self-employment and youth entrepreneurship; the pursuit of the construction of basic infrastructure in Africa, as well as the acceleration of south-south collaboration.
From Beijing, Chinese Xi Jiping, in his address, put forward proposals to mark the long journey and the historic starting point in building a China-Africa shared future community in the new era.
“I would like to put forward the following four proposals: first, to continue the united fight against Covid-19, so as to support the lifting of intellectual property rights on vaccines and effectively ensure the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in Africa to close the vaccine gap. Second, deepen pragmatic cooperation. We must open up new prospects for China-Africa cooperation, increase trade and investment, strengthen cooperation on the digital economy, and promote entrepreneurship among young Africans and the development of SMEs. Third, promote green development in the face of climate change, a major challenge for all mankind. Fourth, stand up for fairness and justice. The world needs real multilateralism. ”
President Xi Jinping also highlighted the nine programs of the implementation of China’s three-year plan for Africa, which includes the program for the promotion of investment. “In the next three years, China will encourage its companies to invest at least 10 billion US dollars in Africa and it will carry out ten industrialization and employment promotion projects for the continent, will grant African financial institutions a line 10 billion US dollars in credit, ”the Chinese promised.
In addition to investment projects, this program also provides for the cancellation of outstanding debts related to intergovernmental interest-free loans maturing at the end of 2021 from the least developed countries of Africa.
Focac, which aims to be a platform for political dialogue within the framework of south-south cooperation and a cooperation mechanism between China and Africa, allowed the ministers and other officials who took part in the work to discuss and adopt agreement on 4 final documents summarized in several points in particular. This includes promoting the spirit of friendship and cooperation between China and Africa, and strengthening solidarity to triumph over the pandemic. China is also pledging to provide a billion doses of additional vaccines, including 600 million in the form of donations and 400 million in other forms such as joint production between Chinese companies and the African countries concerned.
The results of this eighth conference thus gave rise to a commitment by China to enrich Sino-African relations, to provide solutions to the most urgent development problems, to defend multilateralism by supporting peace, justice, equity, and finally, to build a community of shared future in the new era.
