POWER BOOST: China's investment in African countries has helped create jobs and develop technology

Adjusting aid

China's determination to help African countries strengthen their self-development capability can be seen from statistics. It will launch an "African Talent Program" to train 30,000 personnel in various sectors for Africa in the next three years, 10,000 more than the total number in the past 12 years since the establishment of the FOCAC. In addition China also pledged to offer 18,000 government scholarships, build cultural and vocational skills training facilities, and send 1,500 medical personnel to African countries in the next three years.

"It shows China is adjusting its focus on the way of assisting Africa, from helping them build visible infrastructure like bridges, roads and buildings to deepening the assistance to ordinary people and cultural areas with the purpose of building intellectual backup for African countries' development," said He Wenping, a researcher with the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

For years, poor infrastructure and different customs and commodity inspection standards on the continent hindered the development of individual countries and their communication with the outside world.

"The future of our continent lies in integration, which is also an inevitable trend, as the continent will be more competitive when all countries are united," Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger, said when he met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao during the conference. He spoke highly of China's efforts in supporting African countries' integration.

To further accelerate the process, China said it would support Africa in transnational and trans-regional infrastructural development and help them upgrade customs and commodity inspection facilities to promote intra-regional trade facilitation. "Such assistance is more practical as it was made based on the realities of the continent," He said.

"Offering aid to Africa is a win-win option for both sides," Chen Deming, Chinese Minister of Commerce, told Xinhua.

Peacekeeping efforts

Wars and conflicts in some African countries still threaten people's security and hamper the countries' economic development. To create a secure environment for Africa's development, China will deepen cooperation with the African Union (AU) and African countries toward promoting peace and security. "China will provide financial support for the AU peacekeeping missions in Africa and the development of the African Standby Force, train more officials in peace and security affairs and [train] peace-keepers for the AU," Chinese President Hu said at the opening ceremony.

"This is a new field in Sino-African cooperation and shows China supports the AU to play the leading role in safeguarding regional peace and stability," Wang Yizhou, Deputy Director of Schools for International Studies with Peking University, said in an interview with Xinhua, adding that currently, besides political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, there were also potential elements that could trigger conflict inside Africa.  

"Under such circumstances, strengthening cooperation in this field will increase African countries' capacity for solving regional hotspot issues by themselves," Wang added.