In the latest push to strengthen economic cooperation between
China and Africa, a business conference was held in the Egyptian
capital on Monday, with the attendance of China's top legislator Wu
Bangguo and Speaker of Egypt's People's Assembly Ahmed Sorour.
Also attending the one-day conference was other senior officials
and diplomats from both China and Egypt, including Vice Chairman of
the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC)
Ragdi, Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed
Rachid, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and Chinese Vice
Commerce Minister Wei Jianguo.
More than 400 entrepreneurs from both China and African nations
participated the conference, of whom about 150 came from China. Wu,
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, made a keynote
speech at the conference.
"China-Africa political relations are growing from strength to
strength, and that strengthening unity and cooperation with Africa
is cornerstone of China's independent foreign policy of peace," Wu
said.
"China-Africa economic cooperation is growing rapidly with the
China-Africa trade volume reaching 55.5 billion U.S. dollars
in2006, a nearly 40 percent increase year-on-year, higher than that
of China's trade with any other continent," he noted.
Commenting on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FCAC),which
was initiated in October 2000, Wu said the forum has become an
effective mechanism for collective dialogue and an important
platform for promoting cooperation between China and Africa.
Wu, who is currently on a four-day official visit to Egypt, said
he wanted to further implement the decisions announced by Chinese
President Hu Jintao and African leaders at the FCAC Beijing summit
last November.
Wu said that to strengthen business ties among companies should
be the priority of China-Africa economic cooperation.
"Only with the active participation of the companies will
China-Africa economic cooperation flourish," said Wu.
Wu made a three-point proposal in the hope of strengthening
China-Africa economic cooperation.
First, China and African nations should focus on key areas of
cooperation. "Africa needs to develop agriculture, infrastructure,
energy and mineral resources, upgrade industry and train more
professionals to speed up its development and improve the
well-being of its people," said Wu.
Secondly, both sides should develop new models of cooperation.
"Instead of focusing on trade alone, China-Africa business
cooperation should be expanded to cover more areas, including
investment, services, technology and project contracting," he
said.
Thirdly, both sides should foster an enabling business
environment. "We should make full use of current mechanisms, adopt
new policies that facilitate trade and solve problems," said
Wu.
For his part, Sorour said he was fully confident and optimistic
over economic cooperation between China and Egypt, which became the
first African and Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with
China in May 1956.
"By the year 2012, China will become the largest trade partner
with Egypt," he said, adding that the two sides would firstly
strive to increase bilateral trade volume to US$5 billion
annually.
According to figures released by the Chinese Embassy in Egypt,
the total trade volume between the two nations hit US$3.2 billion
in 2006, up 48.8 percent compared with that of 2005.
Sorour said Egypt would continue its efforts to create a
favorable investment climate in order to draw direct investment
from other nations, including China.
"Egypt is also committed itself to be a gateway for China to
enter African and Arab markets," he said.
Wei Jianguo said economic and trade relations between China and
Africa was good as it has ever been, but there was still great
potential needed to be tapped.
Following the opening ceremony, entrepreneurs from both China
and African nations continued their discussions for possible
investment and cooperation.
Egypt is the first leg of Wu's three-nation tour to Africa and
Europe, which will also take him to Hungary and Poland.
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2007)
