The Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOFAC) kicks off this Wednesday, 4 September, in Beijing, with the presence of several leaders from the African continent, at a meeting where China will seek to diversify bilateral trade.
The meetings held on Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and African counterparts were marked by Chinese promises of investment in the continent, in anticipation of a new edition of the Forum for Cooperation, a mechanism for dialogue between China and Africa, which began in Beijing in 2000.
At least 50 African heads of state and government will be in the Chinese capital until Friday (6) to take part in the Forum, Chinese diplomats said of the meeting, whose motto is ‘joining hands to promote modernisation’.
The forum will include a business summit, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, and the event will end with two documents – a ‘declaration’ and an ‘action plan’ to guide China-Africa co-operation over the next three years.
Since 2000, this forum has grown in importance, becoming a priority event that welcomes high-level delegations from all African countries, with the exception of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not China.
The world’s second largest economy has been Africa’s biggest trading partner for the last 15 years, with the volume of trade reaching a record 282.1 billion dollars in 2023. In the first half of this year, bilateral trade totalled 167.8 billion dollars, according to official Chinese media.
On the African continent, Beijing’s substantial loans have made it possible to build numerous infrastructure projects, such as railways, ports and roads.
Over the last two decades, China has sent hundreds of thousands of labourers and engineers to Africa to build these major projects and has gained privileged access to Africa’s vast natural resources, notably copper, gold and lithium.
However, some voices have also criticised the Asian giant’s strategy on the continent for the so-called ‘debt traps’, in view of the alleged strategic use of debt to make African countries captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands.
Africa’s trade deficit with China increased last year to 64 billion dollars, although the gap narrowed in the first half of 2024 thanks to the rapid growth of Chinese imports from Africa.
Loans granted by China to African countries last year reached the highest level in the last five years, according to a database from Boston University (USA). The main borrowing countries were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.
But the amount of loans – 4.61 billion dollars – is far below the highs reached in 2016, when they totalled almost 30 billion dollars.
Lusa
