Economy

China urges to build forum a base for mutual trust

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-20 10:47

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has become an important vehicle of China-Africa strategic partnership, facilitating mutually beneficial and fruitful cooperation in trade and people-to-people exchanges, and deepening mutual trust.

Addressing a seminar on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of FOCAC in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday, Vice-President Xi Jinping put forward a proposal to build the forum into a solid base for political mutual trust, a major engine driving common development and an efficient and mature platform for China-Africa cooperation.

Since its establishment in October 2000 in Beijing, the FOCAC has become a major platform for China and African countries to boost cooperation in various fields. The FOCAC has played an important role in helping the two sides take giant strides over the past decade. China's business activities in African countries have greatly boosted the local economies and infrastructure, created jobs and improved the livelihood of the people.

Bilateral trade jumped from $10.6 billion in 2000 to $91 billion in 2009, making China Africa's biggest trade partner. During the same period, China's direct investment in Africa increased from $210 million to $1.4 billion, while African exports to China rose from $5.6 billion to $43.3 billion. Africa is now the fourth major destination for Chinese investment.

Almost 2,000 Chinese companies had set up shop in African countries and created about 300,000 jobs by the end of 2009. Besides, they have built about 60,000 kilometers of roads and power stations, which have a generating capacity of 3.5 million kilowatt.

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These figures testify that the development of Sino-African relations in every field has been based on equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity. Peoples and governments in Africa have applauded China's growing presence in the continent, because it has delivered real benefits to them and contributed to their social and economic development.

China has vowed to expand its scale of cooperation with and assistance to Africa. It is well known that China's investments in and assistance to Africa come without any strings attached. Despite that, China-Africa cooperation and the performance of Chinese businesses in the continent have drawn criticism from some Western countries, the traditional heavyweights in Africa.

But such views are biased and do not reflect the reality of Sino-African cooperation. The international community should not be misled by such unfounded claims and needs to see China's role in Africa more objectively.

Besides, the baseless allegations and criticisms will not stop Sino-African cooperation from moving forward to embrace a brighter future, because that conforms to the global trend of development and cooperation and serves the interests of the Chinese and African peoples.