The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) opened on Saturday, November 4, 2006.
Leaders or representatives of China, 48 African countries, the
African Union Commission and other international organizations
attended the opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People.
Before the opening ceremony, China.org.cn interviewed some
foreign dignitaries on the state of Sino-African relations, the
FOCAC Beijing Summit and the future of Sino-African
cooperation.
Ms Rosemary Museminali, Rwandan minister of foreign affairs,
said that Beijing had impressed her very much with its big changes
compared with her first visit in 1995 when she attended the Fourth
World Conference on Women. She also hoped the Sino-Rwandan
cooperation would make great achievements during the Beijing
Summit, especially to work with China to attract more investments
in many fields including tourism, culture and construction. "We
have done well, and we hope to do better!" She added.
Hon. Hussein Elabe Fahie, minister of planning and statistics of
Somalia, recalled the friendship between the Chinese and Somali
peoples and China's selfless assistance to Somalia. "We hope China
to play a bigger role in the rebuilding of Somalia like to help us
increase level on finance, infrastructure and power." On the FOCAC
Beijing Summit, he pinned great expectation on the draft communiqué
and looked forward to concrete measures such as enhancing Chinese
learning in Africa and stepping up investment in Africa.
Donal Kaberuka, president of African Development Bank, praised
China's role in the booming Sino-African economic development and
trade. "If you look at the figures of the last six or seven years,
African exports to China increased from under US$10 billion to over
US$40 billion and in terms of imports by Africa from China, the
figure has grown from under US$10 billion to close to US$20
billion. The bilateral trade favorable to Africa is contributing
significantly to the development of many African countries." He
also praised the FOCAC Beijing Summit as a great mutually
beneficial initiative and expected to draw more inflows to
Africa.
Some African entrepreneurs also expressed their hope for market
expansion and for finding new partners here. This is the third time
for Yusuf Abdurrahim, CEO of Abuja Securities and Commodity
Exchange Plc located in Nigeria, to visit China. In his two
previous visits to Shanghai and Hainan Province respectively, he
joined local commodity exhibitions to find Chinese buyers for his
cocoa, cotton and maize. According to Prince Lekan Fadina, vice
chairman of CISME, a consulting company in Ngeria, over 700
Nigerian businessmen have registered with the Sino-Nigerian
Business Council. Besides economic cooperation, he hoped China and
Nigeria would further cultural and social cooperation and he
believed that China would contribute to the further development of
Nigeria.
Besides the African guests, representatives of some
international organizations were also invited to attend the third
Ministerial Meeting and the Beijing Summit as observers.
"China's grant for providing medicines and equipments to African
countries on prevention and treatment of malaria is a good example
for cooperation on public health and medical care among the
countries." said Dr. Henk Bekedam, representative of the World
Health Organization (WHO). "Especially the medicine – artemisinin –
is developed from the traditional Chinese medicine."
"The WHO would like to discuss and cooperate with China on this
field and hope to work together to promote the health condition in
Africa," he added.
On the Sino-African Agriculture cooperation, Victoria
Sekitoleko, representative to China, North Korea and Mongolia from
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said, "China, Africa
and FAO are strategic alliance and we have signed strategic
programs that China is going to send agricultural experts and
equipments to Africa to help its agricultural development in
production, marketing, food processing and other fields. I think
it's very good."
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also participated
in the Sino-African cooperation by establishing a China-African
Business Council last year to foster the links between Chinese and
African entrepreneurs. According to Renaud Myer, deputy resident
representative of UNDP, this council, cooperating with China's the
All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of
Commerce and trade ministries of some African countries, had
organized several bilateral visits of business delegations. He
viewed the Beijing Summit as a good opportunity to increase the
council's publicity among Chinese and African businessmen and hoped
it would highlight China's commitment to Africa and promote
mutually beneficial business and experience exchanges.
Constance Thomas, director of the International Labor Office
(ILO) for China and Mongolia, hoped FOCAC would create more
opportunities for China and African countries to exchange
experiences on labor issue, employment creation, human resources,
occupational safety and health. She also expected the collaboration
between ILO and China would increase from its current fields of
employment creation, business development and human resources
development to include occupational safety and health.
The Beijing Summit, focusing on "friendship, peace, cooperation
and development", will end on Sunday and a package of major
assistance, investment, trade and other key cooperation projects
with Africa is expected to announce at the summit's closure.
FOCAC, launched in 2000, is a mechanism for collective dialogue
and cooperation jointly established by China and Africa to cope
with new challenges and facilitate common development.
(China.org.cn staff reporter Li Shen, November 5, 2006)