African party officials emphasizes economic links with China

China and Africa share a great potential of cooperation in such fields as investment, trade, technology, sustainable growth and human resources, senior officials of ruling parties of some African countries said in Beijing Wednesday.

Officials of the ruling parties of Cameroon, Djibouti, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles and Togo attended a seminar on enhancing Sino-African cooperation in Beijing. The seminar, slated for June 20-23, is organized by the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The African attendants cited China as a reliable partner that African countries can count on, and said win-win for every side is the key feature of Africa-China cooperation.

Marie-Louise Cecile Potter from the Seychelles People's Progressive Front said Africa is faced with both opportunities and challenges in the process of globalization. He said Africa has to take advantage of the process while avoiding disadvantages.

He said the rise of China has introduced humanitarian content to the globalization process. Since Western nations have ripped off Africa of its resources when providing technology to the continent, China will become an alternative source of advanced technology, as well as economically priced quality goods, for African countries to develop their resources.

Since the China-Africa Cooperation Forum was established in 2000, Aimable Bayingana from the Rwanda Patriotic Front said, the forum has become an effective platform for expanding cooperation and deepen friendly relations between China and African countries. In order to further expand Africa-China economic cooperation, he said China should encourage Chinese companies to invest and do business in Africa, increase imports from Africa, exempt debt of African countries and help African train specialized talents.

According to Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China increased imports from Africa by 87.2 percent year-on-year in 2004. In the same year, the value of goods that Africa exported to China reached an all-time high of 15.7 billion US dollars, more than the 13.8 billion US dollars worth of goods that China sold to Africa.

Meanwhile, under the framework of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the Chinese government has set up the African Human Resources Development Fund to help train 10,000 specialized talents from Africa from 2004-06.

Allele Elhadji Habibou from the National Movement for the Society of Development of Niger said China should help African companies improve international competitiveness by setting up joint ventures and introducing advanced technology and management expertise to Africa.

More than 20 representatives from the ruling parties of nine African countries attended the seminar. After the meeting, they will visit Heilongjiang province in northeast China and Shandong province in east China.

UPDATED: 08:33, June 23, 2005

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