By Fortune Abang
CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed the country’s willingness to further strengthen its cooperation with Africa under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
This is, even, as China and the Republic of Congo, cochairs of the forum, have formulated a road map to advance the growth of the forum over the next three years.
Wang said this at a news conference he jointly addressed with President of the Republic of Congo Denis Nguesso in Brazzaville, the capital of the country.
According to him, a visit to the Central African country was designed to build consensus on improving and upgrading the forum’s cooperation.
“In the next three years, a series of meetings and events, including a coordinators’ meeting on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the ministerial conference of FOCAC, the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges, and the 10th FOCAC Ministerial Conference will be held.
“This is to gradually implement outcomes of the FOCAC summit held in Beijing last year.
“At the Beijing summit, the two sides adopted a declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era and an action plan for FOCAC for the next three years,” Wang said.
He commended FOCAC for promoting Africa’s development and improving the well-being of African people, calling it a symbol of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.
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Also, a banner of South-South cooperation, and a model for guiding international cooperation with Africa.
“Since the forum was established, China has helped Africa build 100,000 kilometres of roads, more than 10,000 kilometres of railways, nearly 1,000 bridges, and nearly 100 ports, with more than one million jobs created in Africa over the past three years.
“The livelihood projects implemented in Africa have benefited the people of many African countries.
“To implement the outcomes of the Beijing summit, there is the need for further aligning development strategies and increasing exchanges of governance experience.
“Also, to ensure the full implementation of zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, put in place a China-Africa network featuring land-sea links and advance 1,000 small yet beautiful livelihood projects.
“The two sides should improve the China-Africa investment and trade cooperation mechanism, to provide Africa with a broader market, more practical technologies, and more stable investment for its modernisation,” he said.
He reiterated China’s readiness to work closely with Africa to tackle climate change, execute clean energy projects proposed at the Beijing summit, and build the Africa Solar Belt to make Africa’s green and low-carbon development pogramme a reality. (NAN)
