BRI helps boost African nations' development

By He Wenping

This year marks the 10th anniversary of not only the Belt and Road Initiative but also the principles governing China's Africa policy which President Xi Jinping has put forward. Based on China's Africa policy of sincerity, real results, amity, good faith, and pursuit of greater good and shared interests, the two sides have deepened cooperation, making the best use of the continent's natural and human resources to promote common development and improve people's living conditions in Africa.

With rich natural resources and 1.3 billion people spread across 54 countries, Africa has huge market potential. But to fully unleash that potential, Africa needs to overcome the ill effects of colonization, stop the regional conflicts, and seek capital and technologies to boost its economic development.

Since gaining independence, African countries have been trying to achieve development and prosperity. Hence, many African countries are trying to learn from China's rapid economic development and its journey to become the world's second-largest economy. That's also one of the reasons why African countries joined the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Their aim is to pursue comprehensive industrialization and economic development.

The complementarity of the Chinese and African economies, the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative have opened new avenues for Africa's development. Among the 53 countries that have established diplomatic relations with China, 52, along with the African Union Commission, have signed cooperation agreements with China under the Belt and Road framework.

Even during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sino-African cooperation progressed smoothly, thanks to policy coordination, unimpeded trade, financial integration, infrastructure connectivity and people-to-people bond.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years since 2009. And 2022 saw Sino-African trade in goods reaching $282 billion, up 10.9 percent year-on-year, with China's exports to Africa increasing to $164.49 billion and imports from Africa rising to $117.51 billion.

That infrastructure cooperation has strengthened is evident from the fact that the value of contracted projects by Chinese companies has increased for two consecutive years. Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000, Chinese companies have helped build or upgraded more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 10,000 km of roads, about 1,000 bridges and 100 ports in Africa, creating 4.5 million jobs.

The flagship China-Africa cooperation projects under the Belt and Road framework, such as the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway and the No 1 National Highway of the Republic of the Congo, have played an important role in not only boosting connectivity and integration in Africa but also strengthening the continent's industry and supply chains.

China and Africa have also jointly built what can be called a community with a shared future in health. In 2020, China and Africa shared experiences and cooperated with each other to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Until 2022, China had provided 189 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 27 African countries and helped localize the production of about 400 million vaccine doses a year with African partner countries.

Also, China has helped the African Union build the headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is set to become one of the best-equipped disease control centers in Africa.

China is the world's largest developing country and Africa the continent with the largest concentration of developing countries. Therefore, the mutual help and win-win cooperation between the two sides will help not only Africa alleviate poverty and boost development but also can improve the global governance system and make the international order more open, inclusive, fair and just.

Besides, China also wants other countries to increase investment in and help African countries to boost their development, because Africa's economic development is a long-term task that requires joint efforts of the international community.

China believes Africa is a region for international cooperation, not an arena for major power games. Following this principle, Sino-African cooperation has helped Africa turn its resource advantages into development advantages to achieve independent, diversified and sustainable development, and strengthened African countries' autonomy.

Despite the disagreements between China and African countries, and the Western barbs against China-Africa cooperation, the bond between China and Africa has become stronger, enabling the two sides to prevent any external interference in China-Africa ties and pursue common development.

The author is a research fellow at the National Institute for Global Strategy, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the China Africa Institute. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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