Chinese President Xi Jinping (5th L, front) and his wife Peng Liyuan (4th L, front) watch the closing ceremony performance of the Year of China, in Johannesburg, South Africa
The 6th edition of the China/Africa Forum served to approve a Chinese financing package of USD60 billion for Africa and to convey a message of confidence in the existing relationship that was received positively by the leaders of Angola and Mozambique.
Since the 1st Forum on China/Africa, trade between China and Africa has increased 21 fold, exceeding USD222 billion in 2015, but the ambition voiced by Angolan and Mozambican leaders at the Johannesburg summit was also reflected in their call for more investment in industry, technology transfer and financing projects.
The Angolan Finance minister, Armando Manuel said that the intervention of the Chinese president at the summit “demystified the belief that China’s relations with Africa had at their core the raw materials that Africa offers,” adding there was “a very precise strategy to respond to the three areas of infrastructure, human capital and financial resources,” needed by African countries.
As for the USD60 billion package for development projects in Africa, USD5 billion is expected to be donations and USD35 billion in preferential loans, not including one-off loans from Chinese commercial banks, according to Armando Manuel, cited by the Angolan press.
The finance minister also highlighted the prospect raised by China of “moving Chinese industry to African economies,” while for the minister of Agriculture, Afonso Canga, Angola should take advantage of the financial and technological availability of China and the aim is a program of investments in the agricultural sector with investors from both countries.
Max Tonela, Minister for Industry and Trade of Mozambique, told Radio Mozambique of a desire for greater technology transfer and installation of Chinese labor-intensive industries.
In a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping, the Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi presented agriculture and mineral resources as two of the priority sectors for the beginning of the industrialization of the country, which is needed to abandon the current model of exporting raw materials and move on to investing in selling processed products.
China International Radio reported that Xi Jinping asked for China and Mozambique to deepen coo- peration in the areas of oil and gas, mining, processing, agriculture, infrastructure and finance.
The Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos in his speech at the summit called for the Johannesburg Declaration to reflect the “depth and strategic vision” of the Forum and the 2016-2018 Action Plan to open a “new era of cooperation and progress.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, Santos met with a delegation from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest, which funded construction of the biggest housing project in Angola, the city of Kilamba, and is funding construction of a combined cycle power plant in Soyo.
The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, asked his Angolan counterpart during a joint meeting, for more dynamic cooperation between China and Angola, stressing that bilateral relations “are experiencing the best period ever” with “mutual political trust” and “economic complementarity.”
José Eduardo dos Santos stressed the “success” of his six-
day visit to Beijing last June, when Angola was granted a new loan from China totaling USD6 billion. Angola and China are negotiating at a very fast pace an agreement on visas and another on currency conversion, as well as an agreement for reciprocal protection of investments, said the Chinese ambassador to Angola, Cui Aimin, on the eve of the summit.
Also in Johannesburg was the President of Cape Verde, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, who in addition to being seen with the Chinese President also met with a Chinese company from the audiovisual sector that wants to invest in the archipelago. MDT/Macauhub
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