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Interview: Beijing Forum is Learning Trip, S.Leonean FM
The upcoming China-Africa Cooperation Forum will provide a rare opportunity for African countries to share China's experience in lifting her people from poverty, said Sierra Leonean Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sama Banya lately.
"It is really a miracle that China, with its comparatively limited natural resources on a per capita basis, has successfully managed to feed such a huge population of 1.2 billion," Banya told Xinhua in a telephone interview on September 12.
Banya has been invited to attend the forum scheduled to open in Beijing, China in October.
In his eyes, the forum will serve as a kind of field study, offering him and his country an opportunity to look at China from a near distance and find answer to the question of how China could have strengthened stability and is achieving prosperity in such a short time span, said the minister.
He continued that the experience is of great value to Sierra Leone, a country with rich natural resources and huge market potential, yet still trapped in a decade-long civil war.
Though the war is not completely over yet, we have started rebuilding our national economy, for we believe that a true peace could take root only in a workable economy, he said.
The forum will open the door to assistance and cooperation we can rely upon from China, said the minister, adding that he hoped he could make the best of the event to upgrade the broad cooperation already existing between the two countries.
"Sierra Leone appreciates very much the brotherly, selfless and unconditional assistance China has been giving us, both politically and economically," he said.
Years of the past tell us that "China has been indeed a sincere and trustworthy friend for us," said Baya.
He expressed the hope that Chinese businessmen will come and invest in his country, especially in the agricultural and mining sectors, where China has an undisputed advantage.
Sierra Leone government is committed to providing favorable and incentive environment for the investors, said Banya.
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