Senior officials from China and 48 African countries Sunday
attended a two-day meeting in Beijing to discuss the arrangements
for the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation
(FOCAC) being held from November 3 to 5.?
Zhai Jun, Chinese secretary-general of the summit's preparatory
committee, said senior officials discussed arrangements for the
event which were of significant importance to the success of the
meetings.
In his opening speech Zhai, who is also assistant Foreign
Minister, hailed the friendship and cooperation between China and
Africa over the past 50 years. He said the Beijing Summit was an
historical event in terms of Chinese-African ties and would have a
far-reaching influence on cooperation between the
two.??
Hailekiros Gessesse, special envoy of the FOCAC's co-chair
country Ethiopia and that country's Ambassador to China, said
multilateral cooperation had strengthened since the body was
founded in 2000 and was developing soundly.
Remarkable progress had been made in the fields of science and
technology, education, culture, public health and personnel
training, said Hailekiros.
China has had extensive discussions with African countries on
preparations for the summit and many agreements had been reached,
according to the assistant Foreign Minister.
The summit, which is the 3rd Ministerial Conference of the
FOCAC, will focus on "friendship, peace, cooperation and
development." The group provides a mechanism for collective
dialogue and cooperation jointly established by China and Africa to
deal with new challenges and facilitate common development.
Since the launch of the FOCAC two ministerial conferences have
been held in Beijing and Addis Ababa.
(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)