Recovery among issues for China-Africa forum

Issues from action against climate change to the revival of pandemic-hit economies will be discussed at a forum bringing together Chinese and African participants at the end of this month, with a Rwandan diplomat among the many expecting fruitful results from the bilateral cooperation.

James Kimonyo, Rwanda's ambassador to China, speaks in praise of the remarkable friendship between the two countries built up over the past 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, and he looks forward to intensified cooperation via platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We have very high hopes. I think this (the forum) is going to be a very important platform. And the Chinese side, we believe, is going to make very big announcements about our cooperation," Kimonyo said in an interview with China Daily.

The eighth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will provide a good opportunity for the two sides to review the progress made since the last meeting in 2018, and it will set out a new blueprint for bilateral cooperation as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimonyo said.

This year's meeting will be held in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on Nov 29 and 30. On Friday, China and Rwanda will celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

Aside from the pandemic and climate change, Kimonyo said, participants at the meeting will discuss cooperation in infrastructure development and trade, with attention on how to boost exports of African products to China. Also on the agenda are ways to increase agricultural output and support small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa.

On COVID-19, the participants will look at ways to ensure the continent receives enough vaccines, in addition to strengthening its health systems in order for it cope with future pandemics.

"We think the timing is good. We went through the turbulent period. We are still fighting this pandemic but people are beginning to think about how to recover and get out of this situation," Kimonyo said.

At the last meeting of the forum, held in Beijing in September 2018, China announced action plans for bilateral cooperation covering areas including infrastructure, trade, green development, health and people-to-people exchanges. Many of the programs are already being carried out.

Steady development

Cooperation between China and Africa has undergone sustained development since the establishment of FOCAC in 2000, with bilateral trade rising 20-fold over the past two decades, and direct investment from China has soared by 100 times, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kimonyo said China has been a sincere friend of Africa for decades, and the two sides have always supported each other on many issues, including the fight against COVID-19.

"China did not start supporting Africa yesterday. China started to support Africa before it developed itself," he said.

China's history of financing projects in Africa goes back more than half a century ago, when China itself was a poor country. Many landmark projects have resulted from this support, the diplomat said.

"I want to underscore the fact that China was among the first to help African countries, including Rwanda, by providing personal protective equipment immediately when we recorded the first COVID-19 cases," he said.

China also was quick to announce that Chinese-developed COVID-19 vaccines would be made available as a global public good, and it has been donating the vaccines to many countries, including Rwanda, the ambassador said.

On Sunday, Rwanda received 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Chinese government, the second batch donated by China so far, according to Xinhua News Agency.