Beijing was the best place to find African leaders in early November. Nearly 50 top officials from the continent assembled for the Beijing Summit and Third Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which promoted Sino-African relations.

During the two-day summit on November 4-5, highlighting "friendship, peace, cooperation and development," most African leaders expressed their wishes to achieve more pragmatic results through Sino-African cooperation.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she hopes her country can obtain technology from the Chinese and make bamboo furniture for export. Gabon's President Omar Bongo said he hopes more Chinese investors will create job opportunities in his country. And after China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Co. introduced its plan to cooperate with African countries on infrastructure construction, Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Bernardo Vieira immediately asked for detailed plans.

"A total of 48 African delegations came to the summit and ministerial conference from distant places, which indicates not only their deep friendship with China, but also the urgent needs of deepening cooperation on both sides," said Qu Fujun, former Chinese Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He added that both sides hope to fully utilize FOCAC, an effective dialogue platform and cooperative mechanism, to further promote Sino-African ties.

"The greatest political achievement of the Beijing summit of FOCAC is boosting the relationship between China and Africa to a new type of strategic partnership," he said.

A new start

Establishing and developing a Sino-African strategic partnership was the core of the summit. Chinese President Hu Jintao described the partnership as deepening political relations, broadening economic cooperation, expanding cultural exchanges, promoting balanced and harmonious global development and strengthening cooperation and mutual support in international affairs.

At the same time, at the opening ceremony, he also put forward eight specific measures the Chinese Government will take to develop the strategic partnership, including financial aid, preferential loans, setting up a China-Africa development fund, debt cancellation, duty exemption and personnel training.

In order to implement these measures, the Beijing summit approved an action plan for 2007-09. Notably, China committed itself to doubling its 2006 assistance to Africa by 2009 and trying to increase the bilateral trade volume to $100 billion by 2010.

The summit issued the Declaration of the Beijing Summit of FOCAC, setting out the establishment of the strategic partnership in the form of a political document. Thus, a roadmap for the partnership emerged.

"China-Africa cooperation brings real benefits to the two peoples, and enjoys bright prospects," said Hu in summarizing the two-session roundtable of Chinese and African leaders.

"It is very interesting to hear how greatly China can help Africa. We think that it is a totally new opportunity, especially for the private sector, to which I belong," Luwis K. Tiengoue, Director of International Projects at Group Eoulee in Cote d'Ivoire told Beijing Review. His company has several partners in China, including Tianjin Machinery Import and Export Corp., whose annual trade exceeds $100 million. He noted that his main task in Beijing is to find new partners in other parts of China and noted that he had contacted some Chinese enterprises.

"China is the best market we can have in the world," he said.

Generating excitement

Liang Yan is the manager of the Beijing office of Afriland First Bank in Cameroon. After the opening ceremony, she immediately phoned the bank's General Manager, Alamine Ousmane, describing in detail the eight measures Hu had put forward.

"You know, it was noon Beijing time when the ceremony ended. But in Cameroon, it was about 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. After the general manager was woken up by my call and informed of the eight measures, he was so excited that he decided to gather all the top officials of the bank immediately to study China's new policy toward Africa," she said.