Amb. Liu Guijin
Distinguished Mr. Sebhat Nega,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very glad to attend the seminar today. We just had frank and in-depth discussions on topics such as China-Ethiopia relations,China-Africa relations and FOCAC. The scholars from China and African Countries approached the topics from different perspectives, and put forward many valuable views and suggestions. This seminar is as successful as expected.
I once worked at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia from 1991 to 1993, and witnessed the consolidation and development of China-Ethiopia relations. Now coming back to this country, I feel particularly close. Since 1981, I have been working on African affairs and have witnessed the development of China-Africa relations in the past 30 years. When working as the Director-General of Department of African Affairs in China's Foreign Ministry, I had the honor to participate in the deliberation, preparation and organization of the FOCAC, as well as the implementation of the follow-up actions. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my views on China-Africa relations in light of my work experience.
China-Africa friendship has a long history. Over more than half a century since the founding of the new China, China and African countries have worked closely together and our friendship has grown stronger as time goes by. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of FOCAC, which is the dialogue and cooperation mechanism first proposed by African countries and jointly established by China and African Countries. Since 2000, four FOCAC Ministerial Conferences and a Summit have been held. Every three years in the past ten years, Chinese and African leaders gathered together to renew the traditional friendship and discuss matters concerning cooperation, thus deepening effectively the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership.
Within the FOCAC framework, the "old eight measures" on China-African Cooperation announced by the Chinese President Hu Jiantao in 2006 have been fully implemented, and the "new eight measures" put forward by Premier Wen Jiabao in November last year are being implemented. All these measures were designed not only to promote African countries' capacities of self-development, but also to improve the peoples's livelihood in Africa. These measures cover almost the areas of practical cooperation and raise China-Africa cooperation to a new level. For the first 10 years of the new millenium, China-Africa relations were moving forward on the fast lane in line, which coincided with the development of the FOCAC.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
China's reform and opening up in the past 30 years shows that foreign trade, foreign investment, agricultural and rural development are important pillars for economic takeoff. China stands ready to share its successful experiences and strengthen cooperation with African countries, particularly in the three major areas of trade, investment and agriculture.
Firstly, we would like to help African countries transform natural resource advantages to development advantages by expanding bilateral trade and improve trade mix. In 2000, China-Africa trade volume was only 10 billion U.S. dollars, but it surpassed 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, with an average annual growth rate of 33.5%. The volume dropped slightly in 2009 due to the impact of global financial crisis. But in the first half of this year, it resumed the upward path and reached 61.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 64.9% over the same period of last year. . China is the largest trade partner of Africa now. Africa's share in global trade has almost doubled from 1.7% in 2001 to 3% in 2008, in which the growing China-Africa trade has played an important role .
In order to achieve a more balanced growth in China-Africa trade , the Chinese Government has put forward a number of measures, including tariff exemption for some export products from the least developed African countries, the establishement of African products exhibitions and trade center in China etc. The main goal of these measures is to facilitate the import of African products into Chinese market and improve the trade mix.
Secondly, we would like to help Africa diversify its economy by expanding investment in Africa and improving African production capacity. 10 years ago, China's direct investment to Africa totaled merely tens of millions of U.S. dollars. By the end of 2009, China's direct investment in Africa surpassed 8 billion U.S. dollars. While global direct investment in Africa dropped sharply in 2009, China's direct investment actually increased to 1.36 billion U.S. Dollars by 36.8% in spite of global recession. Africa has become the fourth largest overseas investment destination for China.
China puts great importance to helping Africa develop infrastructure and improve its investment environment. China has constructed six economic and trade cooperation zones in Zambia, Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, and encouraged Chinese enterprises to expand investment in Africa. Some researches showed that China's investment has played a role as "catalyst" in African countries' industrialization process, and China's trade and investment contributed more than 20% of African GDP growth in recent years.
Finally, we would like to help African countries increase agricultural production by establishing and improving China-Africa agricultural cooperation mechanism. In recent years, China has expanded investment and shared the experiences in agriculture, rural development and poverty reduction with Africa in various ways. China has trained a large number of agricultural technical personnel for African countries, and has built 10 agricultural demonstration centers which will increase to 20 within 3 years. China has sent 104 senior agricultural experts, and will send 50 agricultural technology teams to Africa as well as train 2000 more agricultural technical personnel within 3 years. China hopes to provide Africa not only with fish but also with fishing skills and tools in order to help it solve the food problem.
When providing aid to and cooperating with Africa, China strictly follows the principle of equality and mutual benefit . With the goal of win-win and common development, China never exports its ideology or development model, nor imposes its social system on others or attaches any political strings. China never adopt a high-handed approach to order others, nor does it seek special privileges or "spheres of influence". China-Africa Cooperation is never directed against any third party or aims to challenge other countries' vested interests. This is why China never regards itself as a "donor country", but rather a "partner". This new type of partnership has been widely appreciated by African countries and African people who have benefited from it tangibly.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Even though China's GDP is ranking No.2 in the world, but its GDP per capita is still behind 100th place. China's status as a developing country will not change for a long time. China's aid to and cooperation with Africa is a typical case of South-South cooperation in which "the poor helps the poor". For this reason, while still facing many problems and challenges at home, China will continue to keep its commitment to help African countries attain the UN Millennium Development Goals as early as possible. We firmly believe there is no prosperity in the world without the development of Africa. As Africa achieves development, the world will benefit from it, so will China. This is exactly the key part of China's ideal of building a harmonious world .
Thank you all.