China, Africa help each other prosper

The year 2012 is another boom year for China-Africa strategic cooperation, which has created a promising win-win scenario for the world's largest developing country and the fast-emerging continent.

Statistics show that trade between China and Africa soared from 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 166 billion dollars in 2011, and this year it is expected to exceed 200 billion dollars.

China's direct investment in the continent has also been on the rise, with the accumulated total having exceeded 15 billion dollars and related projects covering 50 countries in the continent.

Fifty-seven years after the first Bandung meeting, which marked the beginning of China-Africa cooperation, China and Africa have now gradually transformed their donor-recipient relations into a more equal, real partnership, where cooperation brings tangible benefits for both sides.

For the two who embrace each other as growth partners and development opportunities, an even more promising prospect lies ahead.

GROWTH PARTNERS EMBRACING WIN-WIN FORMULA

With economic ties growing ever-stronger and bilateral trade surging to a record, China and Africa have also worked together to enhance cooperation in many other areas such as agriculture, tourism, culture, finance and aviation.

Cultural and people-to-people exchanges have also deepened between the two sides. Statistics released by China's commerce ministry showed that 1 million Chinese people traveled to Africa, and nearly 500,000 African people traveled to China last year.

With the world economy still facing many uncertainties, China and Africa have everything to gain from forging healthier relations and seeking a win-win scenario in their cooperation.

"China brings investment to Africa, and has successful experience in developing economy, so China-Africa cooperation is mutually beneficial," said Leonce Nikumana, director of the African Development Bank's development and research department.

China is now Africa's largest trade partner, and Africa has also become the second-largest labor contract market and fourth-largest investment destination of China.

Cheng Tao, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, said that Africa is abundant in natural and labor resources, while China has the advantages of funds and technology.

"Bilateral cooperation," Cheng said, "would yield win-win results."

Their words were echoed by a report released by the South Africa's biggest bank Standard Bank.

The report, released in early December, said that China today accounts for 20 percent of Africa's trade and Africa has become China's fastest-growing export destination and trade partner.

It estimated that 18 percent of Africa's imports were sourced from China this year, up from 16.8 percent in 2011, while China's imports from Africa has increased by 26 percent this year.

"Chinese firms have recognized the importance of selling goods to the large emerging economies, especially the highly populated and increasingly wealthy ones in Africa," said the report.

At the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in July, Chinese President Hu Jintao called for the two sides to strengthen political trust and expand pragmatic cooperation in order to open up new prospect for their win-win partnership.

Keith Jefferis, former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana and managing director of Econsult Botswana (Pty) Ltd, said that China is an important source of investment and finance, and African countries need the positive investment to develop their natural resources and infrastructure.

"China's demand for commodities has reversed the long-term decline in global commodity prices -- to Africa's enormous benefit. Export volumes are up -- but export values are up even more," he said.

Jefferis said Africa has benefited from Chinese-led commodity "super-cycle" by exporting expensive commodities and importing cheap goods.

He said China and Africa are complementary in their needs. In the near future, there is enough scope for their cooperation in various areas such as agriculture.

The expert also said that it is quite normal for Chinese companies to seek investment opportunities abroad as they grow together with the booming economy.

"I don't agree that China's investment in Africa is something to do with 'new colonialism' or 'pillage of natural resources.' It is more economic rather than political," Jefferis said.

It is a natural response of capital to the chances of market, he said.

CHINA SPURS CONTINENT GROWTH

While Western-led development strategies failed to break the cycle of underdevelopment in Africa, Chinese investments, made for sound business reasons and boosting employment and growth, offer new hope and choice for the continent's development.

Data from the Chinese government showed that China's direct investment in Africa totalled 15.3 billion dollars as of April this year, compared with less than 500 million dollars a decade ago.

The Chinese investment is having a profound impact on African economies.

In the last decade, the Chinese have built a network of trade, aid and investment with close to 50 African countries.

Nowadays business people from China could be seen across Africa. More than 2,000 Chinese companies are doing business in the continent in areas ranging from mining, finance, architecture, manufacturing, real estate, wholesale, retail and agriculture.

Many economists and experts believed that China has already become a substantial force behind the continent's development.

Ranked as the poorest continent in the world, Africa has posted strong growth rates of about 5 percent in recent years, second only to Asia, drawing increasing investment.

Between 2000 and 2010, six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world were in Africa. Between 2011 and 2015, the IMF forecasts seven of the top 10 will be African.

James Oruko, a lecturer of the Development Studies of Egerton University in Nairobi, attributed Africa's fast economic growth in recent years to Chinese demand for commodities from Africa.

While Sanusha Naidu, senior researcher of the South African Foreign Policy Initiative, said that the Chinese engagement has helped boost Africa's economic growth, even amid the global financial crisis.

Kwame Owino, chief executive officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a Kenya-based think tank, expressed the same opinion, saying that China plays a significant role in transformation of Africa's economies now, and will retain the role in the future.

"The African countries need Chinese investments, technologies and expertise to leapfrog their economies," Owino said.

Boniface Gitau, a young entrepreneur in Kenya, told Xinhua that China's presence in his county has benefited ordinary citizens.

"People can now buy a phone or laptop made in China due to affordability. Previously, these modern gadgets were such a luxury and too expensive," Gitau said.

He noted that Kenyans are enjoying an infrastructure bonanza as Chinese firms construct highways, ports and railway lines across the country.

Meanwhile, what's more important in many experts' eyes is that China's burgeoning investment in Africa has also acted as a multiplier.

They pointed out that Chinese demand for African commodities help improve trade terms. This in turn encourages other investors to look at Africa with different eyes, correcting what bankers describe as the "undervaluation of African assets."

On the heels of the Chinese, investors from Brazil, India, Russia, and other emerging markets have all been gearing up their relations with Africa.

PUTTING AFRICANS IN DRIVING SEAT OF DEVELOPMENT

Also at the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in July, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged 20 billion dollars in development loans for Africa over the next three years.

Meanwhile, Hu said China would also send 1,500 medical personnel to Africa, implement the "African Talents Program" to train 30,000 personnel in various sectors, offer 18,000 government scholarships and build cultural and vocational training facilities in African countries.

It is noteworthy that in recent years, China has focused on improving Africa's infrastructure and training personnel.

Statistics show that China has built more than 3,000 km of roads, over 2,000 km of railway, 100 schools and 60 hospitals on the African continent by August 2011.

Moreover, China has provided 5,710 government scholarships to African countries during the academic years of 2010 and 2011, fulfilling the pledge of 5,500 scholarships announced by China in 2009 at the 4th Ministerial Conference two years ahead of schedule.

In order to boost Africa's self-reliance, China has also pledged to build more agricultural technology demonstration centers as necessary to help African countries increase production capacity.

In November, China launched an 8-million-dollar program with UNESCO to support educational development in Africa over four years to help narrow educational quality gap in the continent.

As no country can step onto the road of prosperity by just receiving aid, it is vital to empower African people and put African countries in the "driving seat" of their own development.

It is exactly the message Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum held in Egypt in 2009.

"Many people are trying to offer prescriptions for Africa's development...yet it seems to me that Africa's development should be based on its own conditions...In the final analysis, the development of a country depends on the efforts of its own people," he said.