Addressing poverty, which is a common enemy of humankind, and achieving sustainable development are the common agenda of China and Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said.
Wang made the remarks on Wednesday during a joint press conference with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Speaking to reporters about China’s poverty reduction and development cooperation with Africa, Wang said poverty is a common enemy of mankind and a source of violence and terror, while development is the key to solving all the problems.
He noted that the Sino-African cooperation has focused on addressing poverty and development.
Stating that about 400 million people are living in poverty in Africa, Wang underlined the urgent task of achieving poverty reduction on the continent.
He also noted that China’s success in addressing poverty significantly, whereby it has lifted 700 million Chinese out of poverty, is a lesson to be drawn by African countries.
At the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) summit in 2015, President Xi Jinping announced the China-Africa Poverty Reduction and Development Cooperation Program, in response to Africa’s urgent expectation, recalled the Foreign Minister.
A high-level dialogue and think tank forum on poverty reduction and development was held on Wednesday at the AU headquarters, which the Foreign Minister said was an important platform to share the achievements and experiences of poverty reduction between the two sides.
Wang said he hoped participants of the forum will come up with practical action plans after drawing inspirations from the book “Out of Poverty” by President Xi and the successful practice of poverty alleviation in China.
The foreign minister has expressed China’s keen interest in sharing its experiences and strengthening future cooperation based on Africa’s priorities towards achieving poverty reduction and aspired development on the continent.
He also expressed China’s commitment to support Africa’s human resource development, for which China provides tens of thousands of government scholarships and trainings in China as well as technical and vocational training to about 200,000 personnel in Africa.
With only one Chinese-built railway project in Kenya, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, more than 40,000 local workers have been trained and about 38,000 jobs have been created for the local people, Wang said.
He also stated that China has supported Africa by providing emergency food and aid to more than 20 African countries, and it would continue to do so in the future in responding to the needs of African countries.
Wang has also expressed his country’s support to Africa in addressing the bottlenecks of infrastructure development on the continent.
China has already built more than 6,200 kilometers of railways and 5,200 kilometers of roads in Africa, as well as a large number of ports, airports, power stations and communications infrastructure, he said, adding that China will continue to support Africa in improving its infrastructure.
Wang also noted that China supports Africa in strengthening the public health system and capacity-building on the continent.
“China will support the African CDC headquarters and the construction of five sub-regional centers as the starting point to support Africa to build a disease prevention and control of modern system,” he said.
Xinhua News
