The 15th Meeting of Senior Officials of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC), was held Sunday in Diamniadio, Senegal with the participation of Morocco.
The Moroccan delegation, which took part in this meeting devoted to senior officials of the foreign ministries of African countries and China, includes Mohamed Methqal, Ambassador-Director General of the Moroccan International Cooperation Agency (AMCI), the Ambassador Abderrazzak Laassel, Director of the Greater Maghreb and Arab Maghreb Union and African Union Affairs, El Moujahid Lahoucine, of the West, Central and South Asia Division, Mohamed Atlassi, division chief near the leadership of the African Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans living abroad, as well as the Moroccan Ambassador in Dakar, Taleb Barrada.
This meeting is part of the eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC), which is held from November 28 to 30 at the Center International de Conferences Abdou Diouf (CICAD) in Diamniadio, located at 30 km from Dakar, under the theme “Deepening the Sino-African partnership and promoting sustainable development to build a community of shared future China – Africa in the new era”.
During this meeting, the experts examined and adopted the items on the Agenda of this eighth FOCAC ministerial conference, as well as the drafts of the Dakar Declaration, the Plan of Action for the period 2022-2024, of the “Vision 2035 of China-Africa cooperation on cooperation and the declaration on China-Africa cooperation to combat climate change.
As a prelude to this 8th Forum, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad Aïssata Tall Sall and Wang Yi, State Councilor, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China co-chaired, Sunday in Dakar, the meeting bilateral between Senegal and China.
The Opening Ceremony of this 8th Ministerial Conference will be co-chaired on Monday by the President of the Republic of Senegal Macky Sall and his counterpart from China Xi Jinping (online), with the participation of the Presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Union of the Comoros, the Republic of South Africa, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Secretary-General, according to the organizers.
The Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC), created in 2000, is a platform for political dialogue within the framework of South-South cooperation and a cooperation mechanism between China and Africa based on the principle of equality and mutual benefit.
Simultaneously with this 8th forum, the seventh conference of Chinese and African entrepreneurs will be held at the Diamniadio exhibition center, by videoconference and face-to-face at the same time.
As a prelude to the Dakar meeting, the Information Office of the State Council in China on Friday published a White Paper detailing the country’s cooperation with Africa in the new era.
The document, titled “China and Africa in the New Era: An Equal Partnership,” describes the meeting as an important diplomatic event for China and Africa to discuss cooperation plans and promote development. common, and indicates that it will be of great importance in promoting post-pandemic economic recovery and development in Africa, China and the world as a whole.
The two sides will jointly develop plans and discuss outcomes to be adopted at the meeting on key areas such as health, investment and trade, industrialization, agricultural modernization, climate change response and digital economy, adds the document made public in China and Senegal.
According to the White Paper, direct investment by Chinese companies in Africa exceeded $ 43 billion by the end of 2020. It indicates that China has established more than 3,500 companies of different types across the continent. Private companies have gradually become the main force for investment in Africa. More than 80% of their employees are local and they have directly and indirectly created millions of jobs, the document notes.
The text adds that China has been Africa’s ” largest ” trading partner for twelve years, since 2009, noting that ” the proportion of Africa’s trade with China in the continent’s total foreign trade has continued to increase and exceeded 21% in 2020 ”.
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