Each new year promises much - spirits are high, expectations large and friendships strengthened. By all accounts 2015 promises much for Sino-African cooperation. Admittedly, the threat of Ebola, as reported on extensively in this magazine during 2014, casts a pall of negativity and tragic consequences across the continent, most notably West Africa. This killer pandemic, coupled with the perennial threat of instability and terrorism that haunts Africa, poses the biggest threat to development and the economy of the continent this year. It is little wonder then that China and Africa acknowledge the need to tighten cooperation in these areas, facing these challenges with one voice and shared commitment.

From a forecast point of view, all projections have a "good story to tell," to borrow a quote from South African President Jacob Zuma. Zuma's visit to China to round off 2014 took the strategic partnership between the two countries to the next level. South Africa understands that China plays a vital role in the good story it is writing in the form of its National Development Plan. Two chapters that are part of this story in 2015 are the hosting of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in South Africa and the Year of China in South Africa.

Under the guidance of the FOCAC, the solid links established between China and Africa that date back to the 1950s have gone from strength to strength. At the highest-level summit between China and Africa that covers political, social and economic issues, China has consistently surpassed commitments made to Africa. China's total direct investment in Africa is nearly $30 billion, with cooperation projects all over the African continent. Based on past commitments FOCAC 2015 will see China increase these figures once again.

Significantly, China is creatively seeking different methods to promote Sino-African relations. Recent initiatives like the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) New Development Bank and Africa Growing Together Fund are all geared to take root in 2015. A sure sign of the urgency with which this relationship views the need to get ahead and stay ahead.

Conversely, trade with China in 2015 will form the backbone of Africa's economic growth. It is perhaps because of the knowledge that a rising African economy elicits increasing need for Chinese goods and services that the International Monetary Fund has forecast an about 5-percent growth for Sub-Saharan Africa's economy this year. In comparison to the global average this is an impressive projection. Fired up by increasing African regional integration and the Maritime Silk Road initiative, all indications are that Sino-African trade will have champagne corks popping at an historical $230-billion high in 2015. This economic growth will present a positive face on the tribulations in Ebola-hit Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, security calamities in Central African Republic and South Sudan, lack of electricity and labor unrest in South Africa, and massive macroeconomic imbalances in Ghana and Zambia. 

Perhaps the good story to tell will supersede these difficulties and see Africa's star rise in 2015.

THE EDITOR