High expectations in run-up to summit

African nations had high expectations going into the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Johannesburg on Dec 4 and 5, according to officials.

Preparations had been progressing well, Nosipho Mxakato-Diseko, deputy director of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said in the run-up to the event, the first of its kind on African soil.

"Everything is set and negotiations on the outcomes are well advanced," she said. "We're exchanging drafts with China and other countries."

President Xi Jinping along with African leaders and representatives of the African Union and other regional organizations are expected to attend the summit, which is aimed at reviewing and enhancing China-Africa ties.

"We have high expectations. We will continue to grow the Africa-China partnership, which is mutually respectful and beneficial," Mxakato-Diseko said.

China is Africa's biggest trading partner and has sponsored major projects in the continent.

Mxakato-Diseko said Africa expects China's help in achieving the Agenda 2063, a blueprint for the continent's development, especially with its initial 10-year implementation plan.

"We're defining the mutual beneficial areas. We can share our experiences on how to lift the masses of our people out of poverty," she said, adding that there will be various parallel discussions, including between ministers, who will refer important issues to their respective heads of state, and academics.

"It's not like China saying 'Take this' and we accept. And it's not like Africa saying to China 'This is what we want from you.' From now until the close of the summit, we'll be negotiating on what would be the bets package for our countries," she said.

Siphamandla Zondi, director of the Institute for Global Dialogue and a member of the South African Council for International Relations, says: "The forum is an important moment for Africa because China continues to be a big economic player. Trade between Africa and China has grown and relationships have expanded in a big way."

African countries should prioritize infrastructure development at the summit and take advantage of the China-initiated multilateral financial institutions, he suggests.

"It seems like an opportune moment for Africa to clearly define what it wants out of the forum. What should rank supreme is infrastructure investment given the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank by China and the BRICS Development Bank. These provide a lot of capital market initiatives in the area of investment."

Africa's major obstacle to economic development is its obsolete infrastructure. The World Bank puts Africa's infrastructure gap at an estimated $93 billion.

"If Africa gets all the resources necessary to boost infrastructure, especially intra-regional infrastructure or continental infrastructure from Cape Town to Cairo, that would have been an investment in Africa's future in the real sense of the word," Zondi says.

Infrastructure development could fast-track Africa's economic development and "catalyze other areas of growth that Africa urgently needs", he says, adding a call for enhanced coordination between African countries and China in international affairs including the United Nations reforms that could benefit developing countries.

"What Africa should think about is coordination with China and using this relationship to get better outcomes in international negotiations, because China is increasingly a big game-changer in international negotiations on finance for development and climate change."

Zondi says Africa should be clear about what support it wants from China and decide beforehand about its expectations, being mindful of what China has done and is capable of offering.

"We must be very clear on the pivot around which our strategy revolves. It must be decided not on dreams and illusions, but on the basis of our experience in our relations with China, where we derive the value from China's contribution to infrastructure or construction, and China's investment broadly and trade in Africa."

Africa, he says, must use its relationship with China to solve its domestic problems and to advance what it advocates.

"It must be based in our experience, and it must be based on our analysis about what China can offer. What we must embrace are be those things which help us achieve our goals under NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) or the African Union, so that we can move faster than we have done," he adds.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/04/2015 page21)