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Africa-China high-level dialogue and think tank forum Let the weak hatchling bird the first to fly… |21 July 2017

 

 

 

 

Experts and intellectuals have lauded China for its role in helping Africa fight poverty for common prosperity, but the Asian nation has stressed it will only share its experience and not impose anything on countries who must develop features that suit their conditions and realities.

This came out in last month’s two-day Africa-China high-level dialogue and think tank forum under the theme ‘Fighting against poverty for Common Prosperity’ held at the African Union (AU) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The forum was organised by the African Union Commission in partnership with the Institute of African Studies Zhejiang Normal University of China.

Particular focus was on rural poverty and the type of policies and programmes that have made the most impact. The speakers presented case studies from Africa to give policy makers, scholars, and representatives of civil society organisations and media organisations the opportunity to identify main features of policy directions in successfully alleviating poverty.

 

Achieving poverty reduction on the continent

 

Speaking at the opening of the forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told delegates that the Chinese government remains committed to fighting poverty together with Africa.

Minister Wang underlined the urgent task of achieving poverty reduction on the continent as Africa needs to lift 400 million out of poverty.

He noted that China's success in addressing poverty significantly, whereby it has lifted 700 million Chinese out of poverty, is a lesson to be drawn by African countries.

The minister recalled that the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, announced the China-Africa Poverty Reduction and Development Cooperation Programme at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (Focac) summit in 2015.

Mr Wang, who was on his 12th visit to Africa since becoming a minister, also urged the delegates of the forum to come up with practical action plans after drawing inspirations from the book ‘Up and Out of Poverty’ by President Xi.

The foreign minister took the opportunity to express China's keen interest in sharing its experiences and strengthening future cooperation based on Africa's priorities towards achieving poverty reduction and aspired development on the continent.

The fact that China provides tens of thousands of government scholarships and training in China as well as technical and vocational training to about 200,000 personnel in Africa, Minister Wang said this is proof that his country supports Africa's human resource development and capacity-building.

China also supports Africa in strengthening the public health system and Mr Wang said his country “will support the African CDC headquarters and the construction of five sub-regional centers as the starting point to support Africa to build a disease prevention and control of modern system”.

Urging countries to consider development features that suit their conditions and realities, Minister Wang noted that “poverty alleviation requires a change of attitude” and that “developing the economy should be the top priority”.

“For us in China, we have embarked on alleviating poverty using our own features with Chinese characteristics. We are ready to share our experiences on governance with Africa, but will never impose our ways on anyone. We concentrate 100% effort on development and we have rallied the whole nation, as a result we are now the second developing country in the world within a few decades,” said Minister Wang, reminding all that cooperation between China and Africa is based on a win-win concept before adding that "a single flower does not make spring, one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden".

 

Sino-Africa cooperation one of the most dynamic around the world

 

African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat on his part hailed the Sino-Africa cooperation as one of the most dynamic around the world, as the two sides are enjoying close communications and cooperation in various fields, such as political, economic, energy, transport, railways, industry, science and technology, among others.

He also urged the continent’s private sector to play its role and ensure proper co-ordination between farmers, processors and exporters to ensure quality and standards and increase competitiveness of the continent’s products on the world market.

“This think tank has a role to promote China-Africa relations... We will work with African governments to cultivate a win-win situation for all parties involved,” said Mr Mahamat.

He noted that Africa and China have been enjoying varied and multifaceted strategic cooperation in the development of Africa’s infrastructure development, including energy, agriculture and human capacity building.

Mr Mahamat added that China’s success story in poverty reduction was substantially a good lesson that Africa should learn from.

He also said that China has helped Africa enhance its capacity building in areas such as infrastructure, education, and disease control.

The two sides have also maintained close coordination on issues such as peaceful development, anti-terrorism, combating transnational crime and coping with climate change, he said.

Mr Faki stressed that Africa stands ready to promote the implementation of the 10 China-Africa cooperation plans, in coordination with the AU Agenda 2063.

 

‘Up and out of Poverty’

 

President Xi Jinping has always stressed that China's relations with Africa must be built on the principles of sincerity, practical results, affinity and good faith and the values of friendship, justice and shared interests.

His new book entitled ‘Up and Out of Poverty’ was central to the debate at the Africa-China High-Level Dialogue and Think Tank Forum. Published in English at the end of 2016, the book ‘Up and Out of Poverty’ is a collection of speeches and articles by the president when he was party chief of Ningde prefecture of Fujian province almost 30 years ago.

When Xi went to the province in 1988 at the age of 35, the prefecture had a GDP per capita of US $198. Last year it was US $8,000.

“The thoughts and ideas of the book are important, such as the emphasis on clean government and the focus on the economy. They are as important today for China to eradicate poverty but also for developing economies,” Mr Wang pointed out.

“The book has been warmly welcomed in many, many countries, I believe it can also shed light on useful experience for our African friends,” he added.

 

Transformative leadership

 

The many presentations were followed by an open-floor discussion on the core themes of sustainable self-development, pro-poor growth in Africa, precision support policy, and trends, policies and the role of international cooperation.

There were also presentations on fiscal and tax policies by Wu Qimin, employment and social protection by Dr Gibson Chigumira, industrialisation by Yazini April, Chinese special economic zone by Huang Meibo, and the role played by government in making policies of poverty reduction by Liu Hongwu.

It was argued during the conference that Africa could tackle challenges of weak governance, high levels of corruption, and the inefficient growth common in most African countries through transformative leadership and mindset change.

Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, executive secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), said transformative leadership would be Africa’s shot-in-the-arm for real development outcomes, and therefore if Africa was to reach its development tipping point, the continent very much needed a mindset change that would lead to transformative leadership.

“African governments have got to ensure that growth is inclusive, that it is happening at very high levels and that the growth is double-digit and are more importantly happening in areas where the people live for them to benefit,” he said.

It also emerged from the various presentations and discussions that Africa has to recognise that poverty is not a destiny. That it is something that policymakers with good leadership can address sustainably in the continent.

After listening to strategies China adopted to win the war against poverty, experts agreed that it would be good for African countries to be consistent in developing infrastructure, improving governance for services such as healthcare, access to water, electricity and others that are vital in dealing with poverty to be basic rather than luxuries.

Carrying out a survey on who is poor, where, coming up with a holistic approach to agriculture productivity and striving to formalise the wide-ranging informal sector are important to addressing poverty whose trends are still disturbing in Africa.

The point for irrigation agriculture, complementary to mechanised agriculture was raised and it was agreed that this could be one way towards poverty alleviation because depending on rains alone could be catastrophic.

With mechanised agriculture young people in Africa would not run away from rural to urban areas. At present they do so because of the poor means of agriculture. With better tools for agriculture such as tractors, and other modern farming equipment, the youth exodus from villages into towns would not be as alarming as it is now.

 

The new Ethiopia…

 

Do you remember the Live Aid concert staged on July 31, 1985 and organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money to deal with famine in Ethiopia?

Since this sad episode Ethiopia has been aiming to lead the way for Africa to become the manufacturing workshop of the world, this with the help of China which has shown its commitment to lifting the citizens of Africa out of poverty.

A shining example of what might be possible for the rest of the continent to follow is the Eastern Industrial Zone, an industrial park that stands some 50 kilometres outside the city of Addis Ababa.

Chinese shoe manufacturer Huajian set up a factory there in 2011, and it now makes shoes for some of the world's leading brands.

Much of the success of Huajian was down to Helen Hai, a Chinese born, UK-trained actuary who was put in charge of setting up the factory, and recruited local graduates and taught them how to make shoes.

The workers benefit from training programmes and modern facilities, even including tennis courts.

Also boasting other large scale industries like textile manufacturing, car assembly, ceramics, and other products, the complex, which is still in the budding stage, is a hub of activity that currently employs more than 10,000 Ethiopian men and women.

It also has 10 direct foreign investments and generates about US $10 billion annually to the local economy. 

It is surely a good eye-opener for other countries who want to lift their people out of poverty.

 

Conclusion

 

I would recommend that each leader and government official read the book ‘Up and Out of Poverty’ from which they will learn a great deal about the success story of Ningde and also representative evidence of China’s path to wipe out poverty. This work can be a good reference for Seychelles and the African continent which still has 400 million people living in poverty.

Remember, the only way one can progress is if one follows living examples of what has been tested and proven to work.

Let’s take advantage of these examples to make the weak hatchling bird the first to fly…

 

Text and photos G. G.

 

 

 

 

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