Xi's proposals chart course for future Sino-African ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec 4, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- The new initiatives launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during a landmark summit to boost comprehensive cooperation with Africa will inject a strong impetus into the development in both China and Africa, and chart a clear course for an all-round partnership between the two sides.

The proposals, aimed at pushing forward collaboration between China and African countries in the new era, cover areas ranging from industrialization, agricultural modernization to financial services and green development, as well as peacekeeping and security.

New impetus for common development

The two-day summit, themed "Africa-China Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development," will be remembered in history as a new starting point in building a much stronger China-Africa partnership.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Johannesburg of South Africa, Xi put forward a massive plan to carry out 10 major cooperation projects in the coming three years in Africa with support from China and urged the two sides to strengthen five "pillars" to lift their time-honored win-win partnership to a higher level.

Covering such areas of cooperation as industrialization, infrastructure construction, trade and investment and poverty reduction, the 10 programs will tremendously promote the modernization of Africa and improve the well-being of the people living in the continent.

Meanwhile, to ensure a smooth implementation of the initiatives, Xi pledged to provide 60 billion US dollars in financial assistance to Africa, including 10 billion dollars for a China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund.

"China-Africa relations have today reached a stage of growth unmatched in history," Xi told African leaders at the summit. "Let's join hands ... and open a new era of China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development," he added.

African analysts hailed Xi's keynote speech, saying the 15-year-old FOCAC, as a long-term mechanism to explore ways to promote common growth and cooperation between the two sides, has drawn a blueprint for the future China-Africa ties.

"China's strategies of development and cooperation have helped the (African) continent to create fairly rapid, visible and significant economic and social transformation," said Professor Gerishon Ikiara, an associate director at Kenya's Nairobi University's Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies.

He said the package of measures proposed by Xi reveals the new features of China's foreign policy on Africa and is set to be a vital driving force for the strengthening of bilateral pragmatic cooperation.

Professor Munene Macharia, international relations lecturer at the US International University in Nairobi of Kenya, said that the documents adopted in Johannesburg will soon be translated into serious actions.