Students at Confucius Institute at University of Lagos, Nigeria, sing Chinese songs at the opening ceremony of Chinese Bridge

It has been nearly four years since the Chinese Government first proposed the Belt and Road Initiative. In this time, the initiative has grown into China's calling card of peaceful development and has been widely received worldwide. Thanks to its openness and inclusiveness, the initiative has spread beyond the countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes to involve more than 100 countries and international organizations. Africa, a continent with rich resources, huge market potential and robust demands for infrastructure construction, is included in the Belt and Road Initiative. The continent's development ambitions are therefore in synergy with this initiative as it grasps the opportunity to advance modernization and industrialization. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an engine driving Sino-African cooperation since its establishment in 2000, is increasingly integrating with the Belt and Road Initiative in terms of philosophy and mechanism, and is playing a leading role in China-Africa partnership as a cooperation mechanism.

Working together

From the outset, FOCAC has been playing a significant role in advancing the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Africa. Although it was proposed 13 years earlier than the Belt and Road Initiative, FOCAC has kept abreast of new developments in China, Africa and the global community in order to strengthen its framework. New philosophies and mechanisms to further deepen the bilateral cooperation were proposed and adopted over the time.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to roll out 10 major plans to boost cooperation with Africa at the Johannesburg Summit of FOCAC held in South Africa in December 2015. The plan covered important areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services and people-to-people exchanges. In July 2016, China put forward five major cooperation concepts of common, intensive, green, safe and open development at the Coordinators' Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, which were hailed by African participants. The concepts have been guiding bilateral cooperation ever since.

The concept of common development specifically calls for win-win cooperation between the two sides, morphing China's development with that of Africa's.

The intensive development aims for sustainable cooperation. Instead of blindly investing in projects, China and Africa will work together to build pilot industrial zones that will produce sustainable profits and social benefits, and then apply the successful models to other places.

To realize green development, production capacity cooperation between China and Africa should be conducted on the premise of preserving Africa's ecological environment. No energy-intensive industries with high pollution or obsolete industrial capacity should be transferred to Africa.

The safe development targets promoting peace and security on the continent through advancing its economy. It mirrors China's outlook on world security.

The concept of open development shows China-Africa cooperation is open and inclusive and that China welcomes the global community to participate in this cooperation.

Therefore, the five major concepts for China-Africa cooperation under the FOCAC framework are consistent with that of the Belt and Road Initiative, which promotes policy coordination, and facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds as the five major goals.

In terms of mechanism, FOCAC is the regional cooperation mechanism to carry out the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Along with regional multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China-ASEAN Summit, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, FOCAC is promoting the implementation and advancement of the initiative in Africa.

Exemplary cooperation

The 16-year practice shows that FOCAC is not a talk shop, but an effective platform for China and African countries to exchange governance experience, enhance mutual trust and conduct pragmatic cooperation. FOCAC has had much success in regards to trade, investment, infrastructure construction and development assistance.

China has been Africa's largest trading partner for seven consecutive years. Bilateral trade amounted to $149.2 billion in 2016. Africa is also the third largest destination of China's overseas investment and the second largest market of China's overseas engineering contracts. By mid-2016, China's investment in Africa had exceeded $100 billion with 3,100 Chinese businesses in Africa.

People-to-people bond between China and African countries are becoming closer. Since 2000, China has assisted Africa in building more than 120 educational facilities, nearly 40 farmland irrigation projects and more than 70 medical facilities, provided artemisinin medication of malaria for 3,800 people, sent 7,000 medical workers and 2,000 agricultural experts, as well as trained 80,000 professionals for 50 African nations and regional organizations. In addition, China established 37 Confucius Institutes and 10 Confucius Classrooms in 31 countries in Africa. It is estimated that there are at least 1 million Chinese working or living in Africa. China is also receiving more and more students and businesspeople from the continent.

By means of the Belt and Road Initiative, the mechanism of FOCAC is once again spearheading China-Africa cooperation by promoting traffic connectivity and advancing cooperation on production capacity. With the initiative, investment went to traffic infrastructure projects and will facilitate efforts of industrialization and modernization, which will contribute to helping Africa realize its aspiration for regional integration. This is not only the responsibility of China that regards Africa as its partner for development, but also the requirements of upgrading and transforming their bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The FOCAC Johannesburg Summit placed Africa's industrialization as a priority and set up China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation Fund with the initial capital of $10 billion. China also pledged to offer $5 billion of additional capital for the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African Small and Medium-sized Enterprises respectively.

Currently, efforts on bilateral cooperation on production capacity have been rewarded. Africa's first international modern electrified railway connecting the capitals of Ethiopia and Djibouti was put into operation in October 2016. This year, the railway linking Mombasa and Nairobi will also be completed. In addition, construction of industrial parks and economic corridors along the railways is also advancing smoothly.

Statistics show that up to 245 deals worth $50.75 billion have been signed since the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit. About 91.73 percent of this figure is from Chinese businesses' direct investment and commercial loans provided to Africa. China's assistance to Africa and preferential loans only take about 7.31 percent of the total deals. Judging from these, the structure of China-Africa cooperation is being upgraded from driven by government assistance to businesses investment and financing cooperation, from commodity trade to cooperation on production capacity, and from engineering contract projects to financial cooperation.

The Belt and Road Initiative is bringing real changes to Africa because it is supported by the regional cooperation mechanism of FOCAC, and meets the demands of the continent. In the future, FOCAC can be an exemplary paradigm for cooperation under the initiative and function as a regional mechanism of the Belt and Road Initiative to make greater contribution to South-North dialogue, South-South cooperation and poverty alleviation and development of emerging economies.

(The author is a senior researcher at the Charhar Institute and senior research fellow of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences )