| An Interpretation of New Measures on Economic and Trade Cooperation from 4th Ministerial Conference |
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In November 2009, at the 4th Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, on behalf of the Chinese government, announced eight new measures to promote practical cooperation with Africa. During the conference, China and Africa also passed the Sharm El Sheikh Action Plan (2010-2012), mapping out a comprehensive plan for the next three years of cooperation. According to the commitments made by China at the conference, in the next three years in the area of economic and trade cooperation, China will implement eight new measures in: agriculture and food production; medical care, public health, prevention and treatment of major diseases; education, training and academic exchanges; clean energy and clean drinking water; loans; trade promotion; debt exemption; and investment expansion.
These new measures are the major initiatives by Chinese government to advance the comprehensive development of the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership under the new circumstances. They serve to highlight that China highly values the traditional friendly relations with Africa, and that China has the goodwill to further cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit, and build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.
China, along with Africa, will diligently implement all the actions in the new measures of economic and trade cooperation, deepen practical cooperation, and join hands to tackle the challenges of financial crisis and climate change; China will help Africa to continually improve infrastructure, and solidify the foundation for economic and social development; China will support Africa to reduce poverty, enhance agriculture, education and health care levels, and improve the livelihood of the African people; China will expand cooperation effort on human resources development, and strive to train technical and management personnel who are urgently needed for African economic and social development.
Measure #1: to strengthen agricultural exchanges and cooperation, help Africa to increase food production capacity; to increase the number of agricultural technology demonstration centers built by China in Africa to 20, and send 50 agricultural technology teams to Africa.
Measure Interpreted: Agriculture is the pillar industry and priority development area for most African countries. Food security is also the foundation for sustainable development and poverty reduction in Africa. China has always put a strong emphasis on agricultural cooperation with Africa. Based on the needs of each African country, China takes full advantage of its strength in agricultural technology, personnel and capital to help African countries accelerate agricultural development and achieve the basic goals of food self-sufficiency and poverty reduction, through transfer and dissemination of advanced agricultural production management expertise and applicable technologies. Since the Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, China has actively implemented the agricultural assistance measures announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the summit. Today, China has initiated 15 agricultural technology demonstration center projects, 13 of which are already under construction. China has also sent 104 senior agricultural experts to work in 33 African countries. In the next three years, China will accelerate construction of the existing agricultural technology demonstration center projects, and increase the total number of agricultural technology demonstration centers to 20. China will also send 50 agricultural technology teams to African to develop agricultural technology cooperation, provide consulting services for policy making and planning, develop better grain varieties, transfer and disseminate applicable agricultural technologies, and help African countries to enhance their capacity to develop agriculture and ensure food security.
Measure #2: to strengthen cooperation in medical care and public health, help African countries improve medical conditions, enhance capacity for malaria prevention and treatment, as well as public health protection; to provide medical equipment and anti-malaria materials worth RMB 500 million to the 30 hospitals and 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers built by China.
Measure Interpreted: Medical care and public health has always been a key area for China-Africa cooperation. For many years, the African people suffered from malaria and other diseases. In order to help African countries improve medical conditions, enhance capacity for malaria prevention and treatment as well as public health care, in the last three years, based on the needs of Africa countries, China has carried out a series of medical and health care assistance projects, such as building 30 hospitals and 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers, and providing Artemisinin medicine. China has also sent about 900 medical personnel to 42 African countries, who have performed a total of 5 million patient/diagnosis services, helping to alleviate medical resources shortage in Africa. Up to date, China has sent to Africa a total of 17,000 medical personnel. To further strengthen cooperation in medical care and public health, in the next three years, China and Africa will work together to speedily complete the hospital construction projects and bring the hospitals into service at an early date. China will continue to send medical personnel to Africa, and send visiting experts for the malaria prevention and treatment centers, and provide medical equipment and anti-malaria medicine. China will also in the next three years train 3,000 doctors and nurses for Africa. It is the hope of China that these actions will help Africa enhance its medical service and malaria prevention and treatment capacity, and ensure the existing cooperation programs can serve African people in a sustainable, progressive and enduring way.
Measure #3: to strengthen cooperation in education and human resources development, help African countries enhance capacity for self-development; to build 50 China-Africa friendship schools; to train 20,000 personnel for Africa, including 1,500 school headmasters and teachers, 2,000 agricultural technology personnel, 3,000 doctors and nurses; to provide 1.5 million U.S. dollars in support of human resources training under New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Measure Interpreted: China highly values cooperation with Africa in education and human resources development. At the Beijing Summit, China announced the initiative to build 100 rural schools and train 15,000 personnel for Africa in the next three years. Since then, China has fulfilled its pledge by building 126 schools and improving conditions at some existing schools. This will provide schooling opportunities to 30,000 African children. China has held a total of 700 training sessions for African officials and technical personnel, covering 20 areas including economic development and trade, foreign policy, defense, public administration, medical care and public health, agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry, education, radio and television program production, science and technology, culture, environment protection, telecommunications, transportation, finance, and energy. These sessions have trained a total of 16,000 personnel by the end of 2009. To further strengthen cooperation in education and human resources development, help African countries improve capacity for self-development, in the next three years, China will build an additional 50 China-Africa friendship schools, including primary, secondary and vocational schools, with necessary furnishings and teaching equipment. China will also train 20,000 personnel in different fields for Africa, including 1,500 school headmasters and teachers, 2,000 agricultural technology personnel, 3,000 doctors and nurses. The training will focus on economic development and trade, agriculture, education, public health, environment protection, science and technology. In 2006, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced during visit to South Africa that China would donate 500,000 U.S. dollars to aid NEPAD's nurses and maternity assistants training program. This program has concluded smoothly and achieved satisfactory results. To bring benefits to more African women and children, China will donate another 1.5 million U.S. dollars to support NEPAD's continuation of this training program.
Measure #4: to strengthen cooperation in clean energy development and utilization, and in clean drinking water; to help Africa enhance capacity to adapt to climate change, protect environment, and ensure drinking water safety; to build 100 small-sized well digging projects for water supply and clean energy projects of biogas, solar energy and small hydro-power plants.
Measure Interpreted: Environment protection and climate change have increasingly become a key global concern. In this area, Africa also faces challenges, and needs capital, technology and personnel training assistance from international community. China has accumulated some successful experiences in the areas of bio-gas, solar power, and small hydro-power plants. To alleviate the energy shortage experienced by Africa in its development process, and meet environment protection and climate change challenges, China is willing to work actively with Africa on cooperation in these fields, to transfer and disseminate proven technologies and practices from China. This will help to raise the living standard for African people, and help Africa enhance the capacity to address climate change. In addition, many African countries also face severe water shortage and drinking water safety problems. Currently, about 300 million Africans still suffer from water shortage, with more than 40% people in sub-Sahara area without clean drinking water.
In order to work with Africa to address climate change, strengthen environment protection, and enhance capacity to ensure drinking water safety for African people, in the next three years, China will undertake to implement 100 small-sized well digging projects for water supply and clean energy projects of biogas, small solar energy equipment, energy-efficient lights and small hydro-power plants, based on the needs and circumstances of African countries.
Measure #5: to provide a variety of loans to help Africa develop economy and overcome global financial crisis; to provide Africa with 10 billion U.S. dollars in concessional loans, mainly for infrastructure and social development projects; to support Chinese financial institutions in setting up a 1 billion U.S. dollar special loan for African small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to help the growth of African SMEs.
Measure Interpreted: to implement the commitments made at the Beijing Summit, from 2007 to 2009, China has provided 3 billion U.S. dollars in preferential loans and 2 billion U.S. dollars in preferential buyer credits to African countries, supporting African development in areas such as transportation, housing, power generation, port, telecommunications. This effectively facilitated China-Africa win-win cooperation, promoted African economic development and received general acclaim from Africa. To further advance economic and trade exchanges, and help Africa quickly overcome the adverse impact of global financial crisis, alleviate the capital shortage facing development in Africa, in the next three years, China will continue to provide preferential loans and preferential buyer credits to African countries. These loans and credits will be combined with projects, to be mainly used on infrastructure development like highway, railroad, seaport, airport, electrical power, telecommunication, and public welfare projects such as low-cost housing.
African SMEs play a key role in developing national economy, increasing local employment and maintaining social stability, thus drawing special attention from African governments. In the current context of global financial crisis, any measure that can help African SMEs to overcome their difficulties and continue to develop and expand would play a positive role in helping Africa stabilize employment, increase market activities and develop economy. From this perspective, Chinese government supports China National Development Bank to set up a special loan for African SMEs. This loan, in accordance with the principle of market operation, will be used to provide financing support to African SMEs to help their development and facilitate cooperation of Chinese and African SMEs. China National Development Bank is currently studying on and formulating the relevant implementation plans.
Measure #6: to further advance the sound development of China-Africa trade; to phase in zero-tariff treatment to 95 percent of the products from the least developed African countries (LDCs) having diplomatic relations with China, starting with 60 percent of the products within 2010; to set up African commodities trade center in China and adopt preferential policies such as fees reduction and wavering for participating African enterprises to promote export of African commodities to China; to establish three to five logistic centers in Africa to help improve business facilities in African countries.
Measure Interpreted: In 2005, China started to grant zero-tariff treatment to some commodities of African LDCs destined for China. After the Beijing Summit in 2006, China expanded the tariff exemption list to 478 kinds of products. Since the measure went into effect, it has generated considerable benefits, advancing more than 1 billion U.S. dollars worth of African exports to China. To further open market access to Africa and increase the competitiveness of African export, in the next three years, China will phase in zero-tariff treatment to 95 percent of the products from the LDCs having diplomatic relations with China, starting with 60 percent of the products within 2010. By the end of the three years, the tariff exemption list for African LDCs will be expanded from 478 to 4700 kinds of products. This policy, based on China's economic strength, is a preferential treatment on a unilateral and voluntary basis, thus is in conformity with WTO rules. China and related African countries are following the proper procedures to implement this measure, to bring benefits to these countries as soon as possible.
The establishment of African commodities trade center is another important step taken by China to promote African exports to China. The center will be based in the World Trade Center in Yiwu city, Zhejiang province, with a total space of 5,000 square meters. The center will focus on products with African characteristics and promote African products to Chinese and global consumers, by leveraging the platform and brand name status of the Yiwu International Small Commodities Distribution Center. The center will adopt preferential policies such as fees reduction and wavering, as well as other conveniences for participating African enterprises.
To advance the sound development of China-Africa trade and help Africa to improve business facilities, in the next three years, China will support relevant Chinese enterprises to set up three to five full-service logistic centers in Africa. The centers will attract Chinese and African enterprises to sign up and showcase their best products, and will perform logistics services accordingly.
Measure #7: to continue to support poverty reduction efforts by Africa; to cancel due debts of interest-free government loans that matured by the end of 2009 owed by all heavily-indebted poor countries and the LDCs in Africa having diplomatic relations with China.
Measure Interpreted: Since the launch of Forum of China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, China has canceled due debts of interest-free loans that matured by the end of 2005 owed by all heavily-indebted poor countries and the LDCs in Africa having diplomatic relations with China. This cancellation involved 310 debts from 35 countries. Currently, there are 38 heavily-indebted poor countries and LDCs in Africa, who are still facing severe development challenges. To support these African countries to implement their poverty reduction plans and reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals at an early date, China will continue to cancel due debts of loans owed by all heavily-indebted poor countries and the LDCs in Africa having diplomatic relations with China, and complete the agreements on due debts of interest-free government loans that matured by the end of 2009, to bring debt relief to Africa.
Measure #8: to further fulfill the pledges made at the Beijing Summit; to increase the size of China-Africa Development Fund to 3 billion U.S. dollars and support Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Africa.
Measure Interpreted: The establishment of the China-Africa Development Fund was one of the 8 measures announced at the Beijing Summit on practical cooperation between China and Africa. Since its birth in June 2007, the China-Africa Development Fund has funded a total of 31 projects under the first tranche of 1 billion U.S. dollars. These projects in turn have attracted a total project funding of 4.73 billion U.S. dollars, out of which 0.76 billion U.S. dollars will be funded by the China-Africa Development Fund. To support more well-established and reputable Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa, China is pushing forward initiation of the second tranche of the Fund, to increase the size of the Fund to 3 billion U.S. dollars.
(All information published in this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only. )
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