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Vice Foreign Minister Deng Li Attends the Opening Ceremony of the 11th Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum and Delivers a Speech

2022-07-21 23:55

On July 20, 2022, the 11th Meeting of the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum opened in Beijing. Vice Foreign Minister Deng Li attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Former Malian Prime Minister Moussa Mara and other African guests, some African diplomatic envoys to China, and more than 200 Chinese and African experts, scholars and media persons were present in an online and offline format.

Deng Li said that the world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and development is a pressing issue. The Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) are China's answers to the "questions of the times" and contribute China's strength to global development. Development cooperation is an important pillar of China-Africa cooperation. At the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC last year, President Xi Jinping summed up the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation. In the past few decades, we have upheld this spirit and achieved a large number of noticeable and tangible outcomes in China-Africa development cooperation, benefiting the well-being of people.

Deng Li pointed out, this year is the first year for the implementation of the outcomes of the FOCAC meetings. China and Africa have stepped up efforts to implement the outcomes of the meetings despite the negative impact of the external economic situation and the pandemic. In the first five months of this year, China's imports from Africa increased by nearly 20 percent year on year. China-Africa joint centers for modern agrotechnology exchange, demonstration and training, "green lanes" for African agricultural exports to China, online shopping festivals featuring quality African products, "Future of Africa - a project for China-Africa cooperation on vocational education", "100 Companies in 1,000 Villages" - a public welfare activity of Chinese enterprises in Africa for poverty alleviation, as well as digital education, regional intelligence centers, supercomputing centers, fiber backbone networks and other projects implemented by Chinese technology companies in Africa are making steady progress, demonstrating the vitality of China-Africa cooperation.

Deng Li said, in the near future, China and Africa will further share ideas on the implementation of the outcomes of the FOCAC, make innovative efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of practical cooperation, let more people understand and support China-Africa friendship and cooperation, continue to strengthen cooperation on peace and security and coordination in international affairs, and jointly reinforce our commitment to peace and development. As an important sub-forum of the FOCAC, the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum has been committed to providing intellectual support for the development of China-Africa relations and cooperation in various fields. He hopes that the experts and scholars present at the meeting will put forward more practical and effective policy suggestions, and make contributions to deepening China-Africa friendship and cooperation, building consensus on development, and implementing the Global Development Initiative.

The two-day meeting focuses on the theme of "Promoting the Spirit of China-Africa Friendship and Cooperation with Joint Action on the Global Development Initiative". Discussions are held from the perspectives of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the Global Development Initiative and the African Union's Agenda 2063, promoting the implementation of the Global Security Initiative in Africa, and strengthening people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, among others.

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