China Outlines Follow-up Actions of Cooperation with Africa

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 26, 2002

China Outlines Follow-up Actions of Cooperation with Africa

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The Chinese government has identified human resources development, agricultural cooperation and infrastructure construction as the priorities for follow-up actions of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, said a senior Chinese official Monday in Addis Ababa.

Cheng Tao, secretary general of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the forum, said the Chinese government will set up African Human Resources Development Fund to strengthen its capital input in human resources development in Africa, and continue to enhance personnel exchange and cooperation in scientific and technological, cultural, health, agricultural and other fields through the method of "inviting in and going out."

The fund will also be used to expand the scale of current workshops, seminars and visiting delegations organized for African countries, further increase the number of Chinese scholarships for African students and improve the training of local medical staff in Africa, added Cheng in his report delivered at the opening session of Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of the forum held in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Besides, the Chinese side is actively preparing for the temporary training courses in some African countries, so as to expand the training and achieve better results, according to the secretary general.

China is reportedly consulting with relevant African countries for the use of some African countries as bases for short-term, practical-purpose personnel training.

As for China-Africa agricultural cooperation, Cheng noted the committee "plans to organize, in light of the Seminar on China-Africa Agricultural Investment and Cooperation, an inspection team to some African countries to select a number of pilot sites for agricultural cooperation with the aim of gradually expanding the scope."

Last September, the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum entrusted the agricultural delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture of China to make an inspection tour to Sierra Leone.

The Chinese and Sierra Leone sides had extensive and in-depth discussions on agricultural cooperation and reached some cooperation intents.

Talking about the cooperation in the field of infrastructure construction, Cheng said China has, over the years, provided aid within its capacity to African countries in the construction of a large number of public and civic facilities and production projects, such as schools, hospitals, power and water supply facilities, roads and bridges, sports facilities, paper mills, textile mills, cement factories and agricultural machinery and tools factories, in order to help accelerate the economic development and improve people's living standards in African countries.

In the future, the Chinese government will continue to expand its assistance to the above-mentioned projects in Africa, explore new applicable approaches to help African countries strengthen infrastructure construction and encourage Chinese enterprises to cooperate with their African counterparts in this field, said the report.

Expanding China-Africa trade and economic cooperation has always been a priority in forum follow-up actions, he said, adding "it needs not only the support of Chinese and African governments, but also active participation of the business communities on the two sides."

To encourage the business communities to take part in China-Africa cooperation in various fields, China will encourage delegates from viable Chinese enterprises to attend a China-Africa Entrepreneurs' Conference during the Ministerial Conference in the year of 2003, which is to be participated in by well-known entrepreneurs and chambers of commerce from China and Africa.

The two-day SOM, the first of its kind to be held in the wake of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation-Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000 and also the first time for the SOM to be held on the African continent, will mainly review the implementation of the documents adopted at the Beijing Conference.

It also has an important task of making preparations for the next ministerial conference and will discuss issues on the cooperation between the forum and New Partnership on Africa's Development (NEPAD).

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