China-Africa Think Tanks Forum kicks off in S.Africa

Pretoria, Sep 9 (People’s Daily Online) - “With significant changes happened in African continent, I find the world doesn’t seem to understand these processes, where China is in the middle of all the development, through funding and political discussions that we have together.” said Ambassador NJ Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), as the 4th Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum kicked off at the Conference Center of the DIRCO in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Think tank leaders, renowned scholars and officials from China, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Cameroon participated in this meeting and discuss on the theme of “New Development Trends under African Vision 2063”.

“It’s not just about thinking and producing papers, it’s about unpacking problems. Besides areas of cooperation, it also reflects on bigger issues that are shaping the world, as well as shaping the continent.” said Diseko as she addressed the opening ceremony.

Being the Year of China in SA, this year also marks the 15th anniversary of the founding of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). And it was previously announced that the FOCAC Meeting in SA by the end of this year would be upgraded to a summit.

Li Song, Charge d'Affaires ad Interim of the Chinese Embassy in SA, pointed out that top think tanks and senior scholars from China and Africa gathered here to have in-depth discussions on Africa’s development and China-Africa relations and cooperation, was very significant for the preparation of the FOCAC summit.

“It is not a coincidence that Africa’s fastest and steadiest development in the past 15 years has advanced in parallel with the robust development of China-Africa relations.” he said, “China and Africa enjoy time-honored relationships. China-Africa cooperation contributes to more than 20% of Africa’s economic growth. Our cooperation has not only brought concrete benefits to both sides, but also built China-Africa community of shared interests and destiny.”

Jointly organized by Zhejiang Normal University, Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection and DIRCO, the meeting was divided into 12 break-away panels in 4 topic groups: New Trends in Post-2015 Development and African Relations with the World, Significance of Africa’s 2063 Vision and its Implementation, Sino-African Productivity Cooperation & Construction of High-speed Railway, Road and Regional Airway along with Infrastructural Industrialization and People-to-people exchanges and mutual learning between China and Africa. Over 100 participants conducted frank and in-depth discussion on the topics.

Within the framework of the FOCAC, the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum was established in 2011, and its past 3 meetings were successfully held in Hangzhou, Addis Ababa and Beijing.