PREAMBLE
The upcoming China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit - from September 4 to 6, 2024 - is being held in Beijing where Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony on September 5 to deliver a keynote speech.
This China-Africa Cooperation Forum is the largest diplomatic meeting hosted by China in recent years, with the most foreign leaders in attendance.
The China-Africa Cooperation Forum has been in place for 24 years, during which it has held 8 ministerial conferences and 3 summits. The forum includes 53 African countries and the African Union Commission as its members.
The proceedings shall comprise of:
Four high-level dialogues with topics including governance, industrialization and agricultural modernization, peace and security, and high-quality co-construction of the "Belt and Road Initiative."
-An accompanying China-Africa Entrepreneurs Summit to encourage communication and explore cooperation opportunities between Chinese and African business communities.
-Planning the pathways for China-Africa cooperation over the next three years.
A Xinhua commentary from “Zhonghua Lun 钟华论“ previews some aspects of Xi’s main themes:
“African countries are experiencing a new awakening, realizing that externally imposed models have not brought stability and prosperity. African nations need to explore development paths that suit their own national conditions and firmly grasp their future and destiny in their own hands. At the China-Africa Think Tank Forum held in March this year, scholars from both sides formed the "China-Africa Dar es Salaam Consensus." This consensus emphasizes that the choice of development path should be based on each country's national conditions and indigenous cultural characteristics. It calls for jointly promoting an equal and orderly multi-polar world and an inclusive economic globalization, while breaking down the structural contradictions that restrict the modernization of developing countries. This breaks the myth that "modernization equals Westernization," expands the path options for developing countries towards modernization, and voices the common aspirations of the "Global South."
Achievements of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum
In 2023, China-Africa trade volume reached $282.1 billion, setting a new historical record for the second consecutive year.
China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years.
Over the past three years, Chinese enterprises have created 1.1 million jobs in Africa, investing in and building economic and trade cooperation zones that cover industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, and trade logistics, attracting more than 1,000 companies to settle in these zones.
Africa has become China's second-largest overseas contracting market. Over the past decade, Chinese companies have signed contracts in Africa worth over $700 billion, with completed revenues exceeding $400 billion.
The value of agricultural imports from Africa to China has seen positive growth for seven consecutive years. In 2023, imports of fresh pears from South Africa increased by 1773% year-on-year, and imports of avocados from Kenya increased by 624% year-on-year.
As of the end of 2023, China's direct investment in Africa had exceeded $40 billion, making it one of the largest sources of foreign investment in Africa.
China and African countries have jointly established more than 10 bilateral joint laboratories or research centers, conducting joint research in areas such as resource remote sensing, renewable energy, and ecological agriculture.
In 2023, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products to Africa became a leading force. Exports of the "new three items" — new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products — grew by 291%, 109%, and 57% year-on-year, respectively.
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