There was a lot of interest in South Africa during the plenary session and the big question for many is how the policies and the implementation of these policies going forward will have a long-term impact on South Africa’s own growth trajectory and perhaps even Beijing’s state driven capital deployment model in Africa.

Dr. Martyn Davies, CEO of Frontier Advisory, an emerging markets research and consultancy, told Chinese Central TV that the key is how China’s maturing of the economy, the so-called rebalancing of China’s domestic economy, will ultimately impact on Africa.

“Perhaps there is a negative view – the negative view being that China’s growth is tempered and is still very robust, but it’s not good from a commodities perspective,” said Davies, who added that African economies relying on commodity exports to China might suffer as demand for their resources cools off under China’s slowing growth.

As China starts to shift toward a more consumer driven growth model and with the rebalancing of the Chinese economy, Davies said “we are seeing upwards of 50 percent of GDP being spent on fixed asset investment in China,” meaning it is an extremely resource intensive growth model for China’s economy and of course that has been very positive for Africa because of the single resource nature of the African economies.

He said the last 10 to 12 years have seen a regrowth coupling, where China’s resource intensive growth has underpinned Africa’s own growth.

"Sub-Saharan growth itself is down 25-30 percent this year and this is largely because of a still robust but relatively cooling of a China driven commodities super cycle," said Davies.

He said Africa is very interested to see how these new policies announced in China during the plenary session will start to impact on China’s fixed asset investment.

“Clearly 50 percent of GDP is unsustainable, perhaps maybe 40 percent is more manageable in the long term. That will have, or could have, arguably an impact on African economies that have not diversified in this last decade,” said Davies.

Gerrishon Ikiara, an international relations professor at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, told Xinhua that China’s deepening reforms had a significant influence on Africa. “Chinese enterprises have helped boost African economies with their technology and management experience, particularly in developing a green economy and realizing inclusive growth,” Ikiara said.

Egypt’s China expert Muhammad Abdel-Wahab Al-Sakit, a former Arab League Ambassador to China, echoed Ikiara’s view. He told Xinhua China’s “go global” strategy had produced mutual benefits in many countries, as it facilitated global capital flow and market competition, bringing consumers worldwide better products at lower prices.