(Source: "Guangming Daily" 2024-09-03)
Lan Qingxin
[Special attention·2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit】
Promoting high-level opening up and jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind are China’s values and core propositions in promoting the progress of world civilization amid a century of changes. At present, political mutual trust between China and African countries continues to strengthen, mutually beneficial cooperation has further deepened, and the construction of a China-Africa community with a shared future has continued to make progress, which has become a model for South-South cooperation and the joint construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Let China-Africa cooperation become a model for building a new type of international relations
For a long time, China and Africa have carried out fruitful cooperation based on the principles of equal treatment, sincerity and friendship, and win-win cooperation. Entering the new era, under the guidance of the six concepts of "shared responsibilities, win-win cooperation, shared happiness, shared cultural prosperity, shared security, and harmonious coexistence", China-Africa cooperation has entered a stage of all-round and multi-field development, and the China-Africa community with a shared future has become closer and has a stronger foundation. China's achievements and experience in high-level opening up and high-quality development have benefited the African continent, becoming an important driver of Africa's industrialization and poverty reduction, and winning support and respect from all walks of life in Africa.
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has become an important platform to promote cooperation. Over the past 24 years, the forum has adhered to the purpose of consultation on an equal footing, enhancing understanding, expanding consensus, strengthening friendship, and promoting cooperation. It has facilitated extensive exchanges and cooperation between China and African countries in the fields of economy, diplomacy, science and technology, agriculture, culture, education, health, think tanks, and security, and has greatly promoted mutual understanding and support between China and Africa. Through the forum, China and African countries coordinate their positions and make a strong voice on major international affairs, jointly safeguard the interests and development of countries in the "Global South", and promote the transformation of the global governance order in the direction of fairness and justice. The 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit to be held in Beijing will take "Join Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future" as its theme. It shows that while China is developing new productive forces, it is also working harder to help Africa achieve high-level and high-quality industrialization and modernization, pushing the construction of a China-Africa community with a shared future to unprecedented heights.
Economic and w88 cooperation promotes mutual benefit and win-win results. Economic and w88 cooperation is the cornerstone of building a China-Africa community with a shared future. Entering the 21st century, China-Africa bilateral economic and w88 cooperation has made outstanding achievements, and the complementarity of w88 structures has continued to increase. China has maintained its status as Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years. In 2023, bilateral w88 volume reached US$282.1 billion. In the first half of 2024, China imported US$60.1 billion from Africa, a year-on-year increase of 14%. By holding the China-Africa Economic and w88 Expo, China has reduced tariffs on African export products, attracted many African companies to join China's cross-border e-commerce platform, and created a series of preferential measures such as green channels for African agricultural products to be exported to China. It has continued to expand the scale of imports from Africa and increased the foreign exchange earnings of African countries. At the same time, investment and cooperation with Africa have driven Africa’s industrial upgrading and social progress. Chinese-funded enterprises have expanded investment in Africa's processing and manufacturing, agriculture, w88 and logistics and other fields, not only creating more than one million jobs in Africa, but also promoting Africa's industrial upgrading and industrialization development. China has promoted regional economic integration in Africa through high-level joint construction of the "Belt and Road", signing a free w88 agreement with Mauritius, and high-level construction of a number of overseas cooperation parks such as China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and w88 Cooperation Zone, Zambia-China Economic and w88 Cooperation Zone, Ethiopia Oriental Industrial Park, Nigeria's Lekki Free w88 Zone, and China-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park. Through institutional innovation and alignment with high-standard economic and w88 rules, China has strengthened production capacity cooperation and promoted the security and stability of China-Africa industrial and supply chains.
Infrastructure construction cooperation empowers Africa's development. In response to the problem of underdeveloped infrastructure in Africa, China has built a number of landmark projects in the fields of transportation, energy, electricity, housing, and people's livelihood. China-Africa infrastructure cooperation has yielded fruitful results across the African continent. Infrastructure projects such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Lesotho-Mose Highway, Guinea's Keleta Hydropower Station, Cameroon's Kribi Deep Water Port, the African Union Conference Center, and Angola's Social Housing have been completed and put into use. These have, to a certain extent, solved the "bottleneck" constraints of insufficient infrastructure supply in the process of local industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, and promoted Africa's economic and social development. Cooperation in infrastructure construction allows African countries to share the results of "Chinese standards, Chinese technology, Chinese equipment, and Chinese management" and has won widespread welcome and praise from the African people.
People-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation consolidate China-Africa friendship. People-to-people exchanges and cooperation are the public support for the sustainable development of China-Africa cooperation. At present, China-Africa cultural exchanges and cooperation have gradually formed an all-round cooperation pattern from the government to the private sector, and have carried out fruitful exchanges in the fields of culture, media, film and television, animation, science and technology, think tanks, training, education and other fields. As of the end of 2023, there are 77 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in Africa, and many African countries have also incorporated Chinese education into their national education systems. At the same time, Chinese universities have opened many majors in African minor languages, making it easier for Chinese and African people to communicate with each other. China and Africa continue to deepen cooperation in scientific research, higher education and vocational education, and carry out a series of vocational skills training in Africa through the "Luban Workshop" to enhance the employability of African people to adapt to industrialization development. China and Africa have established close scientific research cooperation in the fields of high-quality crop cultivation, biodiversity protection, ecological environmental protection and other fields. Chinese martial arts, folk music, acrobatics, drama, and contemporary films have entered Africa and received good response. China has also actively held various African cultural themed activities in China, which has enhanced mutual recognition and understanding between the Chinese and African people.
Different from the past practices of Western countries that paid lip service to Africa, engaged in economic exploitation and plunder, and promoted hegemonism, China-Africa all-round cooperation is based on sincerity, affinity, and good faith. China is fully committed to China-Africa friendly cooperation, uses the concept of new international relations to interpret and promote China-Africa cooperation, and integrates its own development results and experience Sharing with Africa and taking practical actions to help Africa achieve industrialization and get rid of poverty have fully demonstrated China's charm and broad-mindedness as a responsible major country, and won widespread recognition and enthusiastic support from African countries and people. It has effectively countered Western forces' slander and rumors about China-Africa cooperation, making China-Africa cooperation a model for building a new type of international relations and jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Injecting new impetus into the common development of China and Africa
At present, with the rise of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and new changes in the international situation, China-Africa cooperation has entered a new stage. Both sides should take the opportunity of this Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit to further tap the potential for cooperation, jointly outline a new vision, new blueprint, and new measures for high-level cooperation between China and Africa, inject new impetus into the common development and comprehensive progress of China and African countries, and create a high-quality cooperation model for the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
Promote economic and w88 cooperation at a high level. We should persist in advocating and promoting the development of economic globalization, oppose w88 and investment protectionism, comprehensively improve the level of liberalization and facilitation of China-Africa economic and w88 cooperation, strengthen communication and cooperation between the two sides in animal and plant quarantine, commodity inspection, customs, etc., establish an effective w88 and investment coordination mechanism, actively carry out negotiations on free w88 agreements and investment agreements with African countries, and promote the comprehensive upgrade of China-Africa w88 and investment from quantity to structure. Carry out practical cooperation with the African Continental Free w88 Area, actively align the economic and w88 rules and standards of both parties, and explore new models and new paths for cooperation in the integrated development of investment and w88. Build high-level cooperation parks, promote the construction of local industrial clusters, extend the industrial chain and supply chain, effectively activate local resources, and shape independent development capabilities. Vigorously promote China-Africa cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouse construction, expand intermediate goods w88 and service w88 with Africa, and provide new cooperation growth points for China-Africa economic and w88 development.
Comprehensively deepen cooperation in the green field. Increase investment in low-carbon, environmentally friendly and energy-saving projects in Africa, and pay attention to environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction in infrastructure construction. Vigorously promote the construction of renewable energy projects such as hydro energy, wind energy, and solar energy, and strengthen energy storage development and technical cooperation. Promote the development of green finance in China and Africa, encourage the China-Africa Development Fund, the Silk Road Fund, the BRICS New Development Bank and other policy and commercial financial institutions to develop more green financial products, expand the scale of green financing support for Africa, and provide financial guarantee for promoting low-carbon green development projects in China and Africa.
Continue to expand digital economic cooperation. Formulate a development plan for China-Africa digital economic cooperation, draw up an action roadmap, and expand the market application and development of digital technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, mobile communications, Internet of Things, and blockchain. Promote cooperation with Africa on digital economic infrastructure such as big data, cloud computing, and communication technology, strengthen mutual recognition and interconnection of digital economic standards between China and Africa, and help African countries improve their digital economic development capabilities and narrow the digital divide. Through platforms such as "Luban Workshop", we will cultivate vocational and technical talents in the field of digital intelligence for Africa to meet the high-level human resource needs of Africa's digital economic development.
Improving the effectiveness of people-to-people exchanges. Formulate plans for cultural exchanges between China and Africa and create more platforms for cultural exchanges. Increase cooperation in the cultural and tourism industries between China and Africa, encourage Chinese traditional culture and modern audio-visual animation products to use African national languages to enter Africa, promote more African countries to exempt China from visas and visas on arrival, and facilitate personnel exchanges. Expand channels for Sino-African folk cultural exchanges through social media, online education, virtual reality and other tools. Improve the quality of educational exchanges and accelerate the construction of a China-Africa cooperation talent cultivation system with cross-cultural communication skills and professional knowledge capabilities.
Enhance the international influence of China-Africa cooperation. Use China-Africa cooperation to drive unity and cooperation among developing countries, strengthen coordination in international affairs, send out a strong voice of the "Global South", work together to promote the formulation of international rules in the fields of climate change, digital economy, geopolitics, security cooperation, public health, poverty alleviation and alleviation, establish an international rules system that protects the interests of developing countries, and strive to build a more just and reasonable global governance system.
(The author is a special researcher at the Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and a professor at the w88 casino)
Attachment: Original link
https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2024-09/03/nw.D110000gmrb_20240903_1-16.htm
