Chinese president pledges support for African independent development

The summit on the Forum on China Africa Cooperation begins at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg with African countries expecting cooperation in creating an enabling environment to boost industry in their respective countries.

He stressed China’s adherence to the principle of noninterference in internal affairs of African countries amid enhancing economic ties during his Africa tour, which also took him to Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and South Africa’s executive capital Pretoria.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced that he and African leaders have reached consensus on lifting China-Africa relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

“China is offering win-win partnerships in Africa, and we will benefit from it”.

To that end, Xi said, China stands ready to play a constructive role in promoting political settlement of Africa’s hot-spot issues, beef up cooperation with African countries on peace-keeping capability, and share its experience on reform, opening-up and economic boom with them.

South Africa’s Foreign Minister Nhlanhla Nene, whose country secured $6.5 billion worth of deals with China on the eve of the gathering, said that the Asian giant’s current outlook was an opportunity for Africa.

President Xi Jinping made the announcement on Friday to rousing applause from an audience that included South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and African Union Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

It is in the interest of both sides that China and Africa will strengthen unity and cooperation and achieve common development, Xi said. Jeremy Stevens, a Beijing-based economist at Standard Bank, which is 20 per cent owned by China’s ICBC bank, said the pledges were testament to Beijing’s long-term strategy in Africa.

Xhanti Payi, a Johannesburg-based economist, told Al Jazeera that Africa needed $90bn a year to meet its infrastructure development needs.

Despite its economic woes back home, China is still expected to flex its financing and investment prowess.

To realize the upgrade of relations, Xi said leaders at the meeting have been determined to push forward the all-round development of China-Africa relations by focusing on implementing 10 major cooperation plans covering the areas of industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.

Ambassador Tian said China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers in Africa among all the permanent members of the UN Security Council.