President Hu Jintao's visit to Africa next week will
follow up on action taken at the China-Africa cooperation summit
held in Beijing last year, said analysts Tuesday.
Chinese investment in Africa has reached new highs in recent
years, highlighted by Hu's two previous trips to the continent
since he took office in 2003.
His third trip, beginning next Tuesday, is intended to broaden
the nation's reach and strengthen ties with the continent.
The 12-day tour will cover Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia,
Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Seychelles.
The trip follows 3-nation tours in 2004 and April last year.
Analysts say the upcoming trip, Hu's first overseas mission of
2007, will demonstrate that Africa is high on China's diplomatic
agenda.
"Hu's visit is the follow up to the Beijing summit," said Liu Naiya, a researcher
with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Liu said the trip was aimed at putting the work agreed at the
summit into action.
"The eight nations are representative of Africa as a whole," he
said. "They cover the north, south, west, east and center of the
continent."
He added that the wide-ranging itinerary underlined the
importance the government attached to relations with Africa.
He also said Hu's visit to Seychelles, a Chinese president's
first visit to the tiny Indian Ocean islands, demonstrated
Beijing's policy of treating countries on an equal footing no
matter how large they are.
China's diplomatic drive in Africa in 2007 started with Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing's seven-nation tour of mostly
smaller countries from December 31 to January 8.
In recent years it has become a tradition for new foreign
ministers to start their tenures with a tour of African
nations.
A series of visits including the president and premier's
respective African trips thrust China-Africa relations into the
media spotlight at home and abroad last year.
The events reached a climax in November with the Beijing Summit
of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, attended by the leaders of more
than 40 African nations.
At the summit, China proposed an eight-point package to support
African development, including reducing debt, cutting tariffs on
African imports, increasing aid, improving vocational training and
increasing investment.
Liu said the major task of Hu's trip would be to ensure the
package's pledges were being carried out.
Cooperation beyond oil
Economic and trade cooperation with Africa covers much more than
just oil and raw materials supplies, said analysts.
Observers said the strategic partnership features cooperation in
areas such as telecom, food processing, tourism and infrastructure,
paving the way for Africa to become a processor of commodities and
a competitive supplier of goods and services to Asian
countries.
Addressing the Shanghai National Accounting Institute last
Friday, Harry G. Broadman, an economic adviser with the World Bank,
said China's trade with and investment in Africa presents a
significant opportunity for growth and integration of sub-Saharan
nations into the global economy.
He said trade and investment between developed countries and
Africa in the past has concentrated on natural resources, whereas
China was helping Africa's economy diversify.
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China's recent reduction on tariffs for African goods had been
particularly beneficial for the continent, he added.
(China Daily January 24, 2007)
