Wang Xuekun: Good morning, friends from the press. Last December, the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was convened. Following the Summit, China and Africa did a lot to implement the follow-up actions, China and 53 member countries from African side will hold the Coordinator's Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions in Beijing this Friday (July 29). Today, we hold this press conference to give you more details. Firstly, please allow me to introduce the leader attending the Press Conference. Shu Luomei, the Commercial Counselor from the Department of Western Asian and African Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, will focus her speech on the implementation of the economic and trade actions of the Summit and the economic and trade preparations for the Coordinator's Meeting. Then she will be available to take up your questions of interest. I'm Wang Xuekun, the Deputy Director of the General Office, and also the host of this press conference. Next, let's welcome Shu Luomei, the Counselor, to brief you on that.

 

Shu Luomei: Good morning, friends from the media. It's a great pleasure to be here. First of all, I would like to thank you for your continuous attention and support for the FOCAC and China-Africa trade and economic cooperation on behalf of the Department of Western Asian and African Affairs,. It is because your timely and full coverage of Africa’s political and economic situation and China-Africa economic and trade cooperation enable more people to have a more comprehensive understanding of Africa, and more Chinese enterprises to participate in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some details about the development of the FOCAC and the China-Africa economic and trade cooperative relation.

 

The FOCAC, established in 2000, is an important platform for China and Africa to conduct collective dialogue as well as an effective mechanism to carry out pragmatic cooperation. So far, two summits and six ministerial meetings have been summoned. Over the past 16 years, China has launched a series of initiatives to support Africa's development and underpin China-Africa pragmatic cooperation in the previous meetings, which have played an important role in leading and advancing the development of China-Africa relation, and received high evaluation and extensive attention from African countries and even the international community. It can be said that the FOCAC has become a high-profile brand for the union and cooperation among the developing countries and an example for leading the international cooperation with Africa.

 

The design and implementation of pragmatic initiatives have always been the top priority of the FOCAC, and best embody the uniqueness and dependability of the FOCAC. Specifically, the economic and trade initiatives took a considerable share in the pragmatic initiatives in the previous meetings. The initiatives which we are familiar with are such as that China set up overseas economic and trade cooperative zones in African countries, provided assistance in the construction of the agricultural demonstration centers, the malaria prevention and treatment centers, the sister schools and the African Union Conference Center for Africa, implemented the " March toward Brightness" cataract treatment activities, trained all kinds of professionals, established the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African SMEs, and provided concessional loans to Africa.

 

Under the joint efforts of China and Africa, the economic and trade initiatives have been fully implemented, and led China-Africa economic and trade relationship to expand to infrastructure, industrial investment, financial cooperation, business logistics, regional aviation and other fields from pure development assistance and trade contacts in the past 16 years, thus achieving leapfrog development. At present, China has become Africa's first largest trading partner for seven consecutive years, while Africa is the second largest contract market and emerging investment destination overseas for Chinese enterprises. The fruitful results obtained in China-Africa trade and economic cooperation have made positive contributions to the economic and social development of China and Africa.

 

Last December, the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held successfully in South Africa. This is the second summit held by China and Africa under the FOCAC, and also the first time for both sides to hold the summit in Africa, which is of great significance inheriting the past and opening the future. In the opening ceremony of the Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping, on behalf of the Chinese government, proposed to implement the "Ten Cooperation Plans" such as China-Africa industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure construction, financial development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and people’s welfare, public health, people-to-people exchanges, peace and security, and announced to provide matching funds amounting to US 60 billion dollars, which received a positive response and enthusiastic support from African countries, and opened a new chapter for China-Africa friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

 

"Ten Cooperation Plans", featured with the richest content, greatest dynamics and widest coverage compared with the previous forums, fully embody the inclusiveness for African economy and society and the firm support for sustainable development from Chinese side, draw a splendid blueprint for the China-Africa pragmatic cooperation, help China and Africa continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, fully share the development achievements and jointly cope with opportunities and challenges, and pushes China-Africa relation and cooperation to a higher level.

 

As we all know, the Ministry of Commerce is an important department taking charge of China's foreign trade and economic cooperation, as well as one of the "double chairs" units of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Under the FOCAC, one of the important responsibilities of the Ministry of Commerce is to take the lead in the design of pragmatic initiatives for Africa and the implementation of economic and trade initiatives therein.

 

The Ministry of Commerce attaches great importance to the implementation of economic and trade initiatives of "Ten Cooperation Plans", regards them as the top priority and main task of the economic and trade work on Africa over a period in the future, and starts to implement them immediately after the conclusion of the Summit. Over the last six months, the Ministry of Commerce took the initiative to carry out internal and external communication and co-ordination in accordance with the relevant requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and under the deployment of the Minister Gao Hucheng.

 

The Ministry of Commerce sets up a follow-up working group for economic and trade initiatives of "Ten Cooperation Plans", breaks down and sorts out specific implementation tasks for economic and trade initiatives, scientifically arranges and implements the division of tasks and job schedule; and does a thematic research on the implementation work related to capital arrangement and specific projects together with financial institutions and enterprises in order to get the best deal of funds; and establishes a coordination mechanism for the implementation of economic and trade initiatives with the relevant departments and financial institutions.

 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce issued a policy interpretation on the economic and trade initiatives in Chinese, English and French the first time, comprehensively introduced the "Ten Cooperation Plans" and the background, significance and content of US 60 billion dollars financial support to China and Africa; we held four meetings for African envoys in China, systematically stated specific considerations for the implementation of the relevant initiatives and the method for application of funds; we also invited Chinese embassies and consulates in African countries and business agencies to actively contact with African side and listen to the opinions and suggestions of African side on the implementation of economic and trade initiatives, and dispatched the economic and trade delegations or working groups at all levels to Madagascar, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Gambia and other countries to undertake adequate consultations on the implementation and the relevant cooperation projects.

 

Under the joint efforts of China and Africa, the implementation of economic and trade initiatives of the "Ten Cooperation Plans" has made a good start, while part of the cooperation projects have achieved preliminary results. It displays that China is a responsible great power for keeping faith with African friends and doing what it promises.

 

On this basis, for the sake of further communicating cooperation ideas, deepening exchanges and promoting the implementation of "Ten Cooperation Plans", and upon extensive consultation between South Africa, the co-chair of the FOCAC, and African members of the FOCAC, China will hold a Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on July 29 this year, and invite one coordinator taking charge of implementing the results of the Summit at the ministerial level from each African member of the FOCAC to attend the meeting. By then, the leaders of the State Council and Mr. Faki, the Foreign Minister of Chad, the rotating presidency of the AU will attend the opening ceremony and deliver a speech, and the Minister Gao Hucheng, the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana and other African coordinators will attend the plenary session. The Minister Gao Hucheng will give a report on the implementation of economic and trade initiatives of "Ten Cooperation Plans”, and put forward the relevant considerations and suggestions on the implementation work for the next phase at the plenary meeting. During the Coordinators' Meeting, the Ministry of Commerce will, in concert with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hold a dialogue between the representatives of Chinese financial institutions and the coordinators from African side implementing the outcomes, at which the relevant cooperation agreements will also be signed between the government departments, financial institutions and enterprises from China and Africa.

 

Friends from the media, in just three days' time, the Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be convened. At present, preparations for the meeting have been well underway, and many African countries have acknowledged to China to send high-level government delegations to attend the meeting. Please given considerable attention and comprehensive coverage of the Meeting, especially the speech of the Minister Gao Hucheng. We will always uphold the cooperation philosophy of "sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith" and the correct outlook on suitability and advantage, adhere to the "win-win cooperation and common development" for the goal, work together with African countries to ensure the safe, orderly and effective promotion of the implementation of the results of the Summit, especially the "Ten Cooperation Plans", and strive for achieving more results earlier to benefit more Chinese people and African people.

 

Next, I would like to answer your questions.

 

Wang Xuekun: Thank you, the Counselor Shu Luomei, for your introduction. Next, you are free to raise your questions. Please introduce the name of your media when raising questions.

 

Reporter from Phoenix TV: At present, how about the size and efficiency of China's assistance for Africa？In addition, we notice that part of US 60 billion dollars are used for free assistance, so what kind of arrangement for such part will be made under the plan of the Ministry of Commerce? What is the exact amount?

 

Shu Luomei: China is the largest developing country, but for a long time, we have been participating in international development assistance cooperation positively within our capacity. Of course, as we are a developing country, the size of our foreign aid is still limited. It is not adequate to compare it with the aid provided by developed countries in terms of the amount. Moreover, we provide aid mainly through bilateral channels, implementation of specific construction aids projects, provision of some supplies for free, and other ways. For 65 years, we have helped African countries in building bridges and roads, digging wells, supplying electricity, establishing hospitals, repairing schools and dispatching all kinds of talents, sent medical personnel to work in Africa for a long term, and made a positive contribution to reducing the poverty and improve people's livelihood for Africa. I would like to show you a set of data so that you may know better about our aid to and cooperation with Africa.

 

Since 2000, China has helped Africa build more than 120 educational facilities and nearly 40 water conservancy and irrigation projects, constructed and renovated over 70 medical and health facilities, provided artemisinin anti-malaria drugs for about 3,800 persons, and sent medical personnel for 7,000 trips and agricultural experts for more than 2,000 trips. China has trained over 80,000 talents for more than 50 countries and regional organizations in Africa. Those talents are only the ones accepting training in Beijing, and there are many professionals accepting the training in their local areas. The training allows them to share China's development experience. China also sent volunteers to 16 African countries for about 500 trips. You may have noticed that, during Ebola outbreak in Africa in 2014, among the international community, we were the first to rush to the rescue, and successively provided four round of urgent humanitarian assistance, including provision of medical equipment, and aided construction of diagnosis and treatment centers and biological laboratories. We also sent a large number of medical personnel to work with African people on the front line of Ebola, and have been highly praised by the international community and the African people. China has become one of the most important development partners for Africa. All kinds of assistance initiatives extensively covering Africa, which mainly aim to meet the development needs of African people's livelihood without any political conditions attached, are warmly welcomed by the African people, and reveal our international morality and responsibility.

 

In general, as a developing country, we provide those assistance within our power, only accounting for a limited share of our GDP. Of course, with the increase of our national strength, we will gradually increase the size of foreign aid, including assistance to Africa, continue to improve the application of aid funds, and flexibly use a variety of foreign aid methods.

 

Back to the question you raised just now, how much of US 60 billion dollars we will allocate for assistance. Through the policy interpretation released by us, you may have a better understanding of the breakdown of US 60 billion dollars, among which, US 5 billion dollars are used for free assistance and interest-free loan, and US 35 billion dollars concessional loans and export credit. Such part involves the assistance funds and projects and requires the direct participation and implementation of the Ministry of Commerce. The Ministry of Commerce will push forward in an orderly manner according to the schedule, the country and the degree of the projects.

 

Reporter from International Business Daily: You just mentioned that the Ministry of Commerce will take the lead to hold a dialogue between the representative of Chinese financial institutions and the African coordinators implementing the results of the Summit during the Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), so could you please introduce the significance and details of the dialogue?

 

Shu Luomei: As I have mentioned in the previous introduction, during the Johannesburg Summit in December last year, President Xi announced that China will provide funds totaling US 60 billion dollars for the implementation of "Ten Cooperation Plans" between China and Africa. How to make the best use of US 60 billion dollars is the focus of African side in the implementation of the follow-up economic and trade actions. In order to provide Africa further information on the support direction and operational procedures of US 60 billion dollars, and ensure that our Ten Cooperation Plans can be completed with quantity and quality guaranteed, we determine to hold a dialogue between the representatives of Chinese financial institutions and the African coordinators implementing the results in the afternoon on July 29. The dialogue is a part of our Coordinators' Meeting. We will invite all African coordinators implementing the outcomes to attend the meeting. China attaches great importance to this dialogue. Qian Keming, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce will chair the dialogue. We also invited the representative of the Export-import Bank of China, China Development Bank, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, China-Africa development Fund, China-Africa Capacity Fund, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and other units, which will, in combination with their business functions, respectively introduce the concessional nature, loans, China-Africa development Fund, special loans for China-Africa SMEs, and the support direction and details of export credit, credit insurance and other business, and interact with the African coordinators presence at the dialogue. The relevant stages of this Meeting are open to the media. We welcome your active participation and comprehensive coverage of such stages.

 

Reporter from China Daily: Please give us more details about China-Africa Development Fund and China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund.

 

Shu Luomei: Investment in Africa is a highlight and point of growth for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, plays a leading role in investment, and is one of the engines driving the China-Africa economic and trade cooperation to a higher level and at a faster step over a period in the future. In recent years, Chinese government paid special attention to and supported Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa, particularly to actively participate in the African industrialization and urbanization process, therefore, it successively established two funds, China-Africa Development Fund at the Beijing Summit in 2006 and China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund at the Johannesburg Summit in 2015. The China-Africa Development Fund is the first equity investment fund of China focusing on the investment in Africa. It was announced to be set up in 2006. Later in 2007, it began operation. Now, we have US 5 billion dollars in place, and another US 5 billion dollars which President Xi proposed to increase for the China-Africa Development Fund at the Johannesburg Summit in 2015, making the size of the China-Africa Development Fund reaching US 10 billion dollars. The fund is mainly used to support Chinese enterprises to conduct trade and investment in Africa, and take shares in the enterprises and projects invested by them. The independent management, market operation and assumption of risks are adopted for operation and management of those enterprises and projects. The fund focuses on agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and basic industries, resource development, etc., all of which are able to help Africa improve their own "hematopoietic" function. After nine years of operation, China-Africa Development Fund has become a main platform for Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa and an important bridge connecting Chinese enterprises with African projects, and played an important role in leading and supporting more Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa. So far, China-Africa Development Fund has invested in 87 projects in over 30 countries with US 3.55 billion dollars. After all these projects are put into operation, we can promote the Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa with approximately US 16 billion.

 

Another fund is China-Africa Capacity Fund, an investment fund in Africa newly established by us with the initial investment of US 10 billion dollars. In the principles of marketization, professionalization and internationalization, it engages in the equity, bonds, loans and other investments, and assets trustee management, investment management and other businesses. China-Africa Capacity Fund is mainly dedicated to the construction of "three networks and industrialization", focusing on such infrastructure as African ports, highways and aviation and such industries as energy and mining, real estate and husbandry. In the first half of this year, under the leadership of these two funds, the non-financial direct investment flows of Chinese enterprises in Africa exceeded US 1.3 billion dollars, an increase of 10% YoY. Against the background of the decline in global trade and investment growth, it is rare to see that the investment cooperation between both sides can achieve such a result. We believe that, these two funds will play a more positive role in promoting China-Africa investment and production capacity cooperation in the future.

 

Reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily: Since there are a lot of cooperation between China and Africa, does it means that China is in competition with western countries in Africa? What difference do you think between Chinese and Western countries in investment in Africa?

 

Shu Luomei: Africa belongs to African people, while African people is Africa's owner. Therefore, Africa has the right to choose its partners. Western countries have a unique history in Africa. As many western countries had colonized Africa, a significant part of their investment and assistant have been given to Africa. In Africa, the past decade saw a rapid development in our economic and trade cooperation. Before that, we cooperated with each other mainly by development assistance and trade contacts. Now, our cooperation have expanded into infrastructure, industrial investment, financial cooperation, logistics and regional aviation, which you haven't seen in the past. In recent years, as Africa's economic and political status are rising, the international community have paid greater attention to Africa, and increased their investment in Africa. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have been providing assistance to Africa within our power, and then started investment with the growth of our national strength and enterprises' strength. We have unique advantages in Africa, and Chinese enterprises place emphasis on infrastructure and capacity cooperation when investing in Africa. Other countries also conduct investment and business activities in all aspects. Chinese enterprises respect the laws of the market and commercial criteria and fairly participate in the African market competition, enriching the diversity of the market. Meanwhile, we also may take use of our respective advantages to conduct complementary cooperation in some fields. When it comes to cooperation with other countries, we have been always adhering to the "Africa-proposed, Africa-agreed and Africa-led" principles.