New Initiatives

At the opening ceremony of the fourth ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on November 8, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao outlined eight measures that the Chinese Government will take to strengthen the China-Africa partnership in the next three years:

China proposes to establish a China-Africa partnership in addressing climate change. It will hold consultations between senior Chinese and African officials from time to time and enhance cooperation on satellite weather monitoring, development and utilization of new energy sources as well as prevention and control of desertification and urban environmental protection. It has decided to build 100 clean energy projects for Africa covering solar power, biogas and small hydropower.

China will enhance cooperation with Africa in science and technology. It proposes to launch a China-Africa science and technology partnership, under which it will carry out 100 joint demonstration projects on scientific and technological research, receive 100 African postdoctoral fellows to conduct scientific research in China, and assist them in going back and serving their home countries.

China will help Africa build up its financing capacity. It will provide $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries, and support Chinese financial institutions in setting up a $1 billion special loan for small and medium-sized African businesses. For the heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China, China will cancel their debts associated with interest-free government loans due to mature by the end of 2009.

China will further open up its market to African products. It will phase in zero-tariff treatment to 95 percent of the products from the least developed African countries that have diplomatic relations with China, starting with 60 percent of the products within 2010.

China will further enhance cooperation with Africa in agriculture. It will increase the number of agricultural technology demonstration centers built by China in Africa to 20, send 50 agricultural technology teams to Africa and train 2,000 agricultural technology personnel for Africa, in order to help strengthen Africa's ability to ensure food security.

China will deepen cooperation with Africa in medical and health care. It will provide medical equipment and anti-malaria material worth 500 million yuan ($71.4 million) to the 30 hospitals and 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers built by China and train 3,000 doctors and nurses for Africa.

China will enhance cooperation with Africa in human resources development and education. It will build 50 China-Africa friendship schools and train 1,500 school principals and teachers for African countries. By 2012, it will increase the number of Chinese Government scholarships to Africa to 5,500. And it will train a total of 20,000 professionals in various fields for Africa over the next three years.

China will expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges with Africa. It proposes to launch a China-Africa joint research and exchange program, which will enable scholars and think tanks to have more exchanges and cooperation, share development experience, and provide intellectual support for formulating better cooperation policies by the two sides.

(Source: www.focac.org)