Vice-President: China to boost exchanges with Africa

China looks forward to further people-to-people exchanges with Africa to further promote mutual political trust, win-win economic cooperation and mutual assistance in security affairs, Vice-President Wang Qishan said on Monday.

China will join hands with its African friends to boost cooperation and common development, and push forward the development of China-African relations to higher levels and broader areas, Wang said in a keynote speech at the opening of the Fifth China-Africa People's Forum .

The two-day forum in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, has attracted more than 100 representatives, including NGO leaders, think tank scholars, from over 30 countries.

Wang said China and African nations, both developing regions, share similar historical experiences and struggle as well as same tasks for development, which has bound people of the two sides together.

Wang said the people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa has promising prospects with the two sides working together to develop a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Wang said nongovernmental institutions and people of both sides should step up exchanges and treat each other with sincerity, and promote alignment in notions, integration of interests and communication of people's voices.

NGOs and enterprises of both sides should also take advantage of the platform presented by the Belt and Road Initiative and step up win-win cooperation.

NGOs and people of both sides should also play a bigger role in bilateral cooperation to cope with security challenges. Cooperation in areas covering poverty alleviation, disease control, disaster relief and improving of livelihoods can be boosted to provide complementary strength for intergovernmental cooperation, he said.

China and Africa share broad interests in international affairs, and have maintained good relations. NGOs of both sides should increase coordination, and make their voices heard proactively, to better safeguard the interests of developing countries in the international rulemaking and speaking rights, Wang said.