The 22nd World Economic Forum on Africa was held on May 9-11 in Ethiopia with a theme of "Shaping Africa's Transformation." According to He Wenping, Director of the African Studies Section of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Africa is now facing a great opportunity in the history of its economic development, and African countries should grasp this opportunity to realize transformation in their economic systems. Her thoughts on this are as follows:

Ever since the mid-1990s, sub-Saharan African countries have witnessed the trend of a stable increase in their economic development, with annual economic growths of nearly 6 percent, inflation being restrained and financial conditions gradually improved. The Economist published a cover feature in its December 2011 issue, saying that of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the past decade, six are from Africa. While speaking to the press, Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region, noted that thanks to the strong growth in agriculture and infrastructure construction and the rapid inflow of foreign funds, Africa is expected to enter a period of 20 years of growth. He also likened Africa's growth to that of India in the past two decades.

However, behind the rapid economic growth and growth expectation, Africa still faces uncertainties brought about by the international economic environment and the challenges of its own unbalanced and vulnerable economic structure in its economic sustainable development. Though African countries have been making unremitting efforts in economic development after gaining independence in the 1960s and 1970s, they still rely on singular economic structure of exporting raw materials and primary products such as resources and energy. In addition, these products are not priced by African countries, but by the Western countries and related guild monopolization organizations. In this context, the economic performances of resource exporting African countries are seriously influenced by the international economic environment and the price fluctuation of the primary products they export in the international market.

In addition, Africa's unbalanced economic structure and vulnerability also include backward basic infrastructures, low ratios of internal trade, low industrial capacity and insufficient domestic investment. The underdeveloped transportation industry and poor road conditions push up the costs of regional trade among African countries. They also hindered foreign investment in Africa.

Statistics from the African Union show that inter-regional trade accounts only for less than 10 percent of the continent's total export volume; in contrast, the percentage is more than 70 percent in Europe and 45 percent among developing countries and regions in Asia. With low domestic investment and bank savings ratio, African countries rely heavily on foreign aid, and their economic development is greatly influenced by the constantly changing foreign direct investments and official development assistance.

Thus, to realize sustainable economic development, Africa should break the above-mentioned restraining factors and establish the endogenous growth mechanism to realize transformation in their development modes. In other words, African countries should change their foreign-spurred economic growth mode to the new self-growth mode, relying on increase of inter-regional trade, improvement of infrastructure, lifting of industrial capacity and collection of self-development funds.

In the long term, the African economy is closely linked with European and American markets due to historical colonization. Every move that Europe and the United States make in the economic sector can influence Africa. Though Africa's economic growth plummeted to below 2 percent in 2009 due to the financial crisis, it regained momentum in 2010 brought about by the emerging economies in Asia, reaching 4 percent. In 2011, the growth reached 6 percent and this figure is also projected for 2012 by the International Monetary Fund. Thus, with the increasingly close economic connection between Africa and Asia, the sustainable economic growth of Africa and the economic development of emerging countries will grow on a mutually-beneficial basis.

For the first time, the World Economic Forum on Africa chose to be held in Ethiopia, the country where the headquarters of African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa are located. The country with the second largest population in Africa and with abundant resources is one of the sub-Saharan countries with the fastest economic development. China is now Ethiopia's largest investor and No.1 trade partner. In 2009, China and Ethiopia signed the agreement to avoid double taxation. China's enterprises have directly invested $138 million in Ethiopia, covering the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals and glass manufacturing. These industries not only can increase local employment, but also are in line with the national development strategies of realizing industrialization of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia's rapid economic development and successful economic transformation show that it is definitely realistic for African countries to realize economic transformation and sustainable growth based on their respective conditions and historical opportunity.