China And Africa Move To Implement 10 Partnership Areas As FOCAC Ministerial Meeting Kicks Off

Source: Africa Publicity

The Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) coordinators ministerial meeting has started, with discussions centring on speedy implementation of the 2024 summit’s 10 partnership areas that seek to drive the Sino-Africa development agenda.

African Ministers responsible for foreign affairs and trade and their Chinese counterparts have agreed on the speedy implementation of the partnership areas during the Beijing 2024 summit.

According to China’s Foreign Minister and co-chair of the ministerial meeting, Honourable Wang Yi, as FOCAC celebrates 25 years, the grouping has become a model of solidarity and cooperation for the global south.

The Chinese Minister said “This year marks the 25th anniversary of FOCAC. Over the past years, the forum has been driving the rapid growth of China-Africa cooperation and has become a model and solidarity and cooperation of the global south. At the FOCAC summit in Beijing in September last year, African countries and China agreed to jointly advance modernisation in 6 priority areas and work together to take 10 partnership actions steering the China-Africa relations into a new stage of jointly building an all-weather community with a shared future for the new era.”

African countries also enunciated on continued collaboration between China and Africa in pushing for more developmental and economic benefits for member states.

Congo Brazzaville’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Jean-Claude Gakosso, echoed the need for the swift implementation of initiatives to unlock broader developmental benefits for the continent.

“Since the Beijing Summit, the strategic partnership between China and Africa has delivered fruitful outcomes and I call for speedy implementation of the 10 partnership to bring more benefits to the African people.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Professor Amon Murwira concurred saying for Zimbabwe, FOCAC presents a unique advantage in developing several sectors.

“This meeting has given us a platform to discuss the development path of our countries. You will find that China has assisted Zimbabwe in a number of areas agriculture, mining and others, this is a crucial grouping for pushing development.”

On the backdrop of several multi-billion dollar investment projects such as the New Parliament Building, Hwange Power Station revitalisation, Dinson Iron and Steel Company, among others, Zimbabwe has over the years entered into partnerships with China in various fronts that include education, scientific and technical cooperation, tourism, mining and infrastructure development with the Asian giant as one the country’s largest source of Foreign Direct Investment.

The partnership areas

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in September 2024 that China stands ready to work with Africa to implement 10 partnership action plans in the next three years to jointly advance modernization.

One-third of the world’s population lives in China and Africa. There will be no global modernization without the modernization of China and Africa, Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

According to Xi, the 10 partnership action plans will cover the areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihood, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, green development, and common security.