Experts from China, Africa hold forum on alleviating poverty

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-11-19

Officials and experts from China and Africa met on Tuesday at African Union (AU) Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the China-Africa Poverty Reduction and Development Conference.

Officials at the opening of the conference highlighted that Africa draws lesson from China's success story on poverty reduction through industrial development.

The three-day Conference focuses on "Industrial Development: Cross-Perspectives from Africa and China", and expected to discuss strategies and polices as well as knowledge sharing and experience exchanges on poverty reduction and development.

Eugen Owusu, UN Development Program Resident Representative in Ethiopia, said that China has managed to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty in a short period of time.

Africa can benefit from China's experience by using its collective institutions such as the African Union, said Owusu. "The success of China is quite inspiring, and we Africans are learning from that experience and intend to take more advantage of our privileged partnership with China to progress," said Fatima Haram Acyl, AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry. The commissioner stated that trade between Africa and China has been growing rapidly in recent years.

"In 2010, total trade between Africa and China exceeded US$130 billion, and by 2013, it topped US$210, making China Africa's biggest trading partner, although the bulk of the trade is still in resource commodities. Africa's trade with EU stands at US$137 billion and a mere US$96 billion with the US," she said.

In 2000, cooperation between Africa and China was institutionalized through the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), she said, adding the instrument of cooperation has deeply contributed to strengthening the strategic partnership between Africa and China.

Officially opening the conference, Ethiopia's president Mulatu Teshome said "benchmarking China's experience of rapid industrialization will have significant positive impacts should Africa emulate."

"China and Africa are sincere friends and China's support will greatly enable Africa to accelerate its rapidly growing economy," the president said, adding that "the role of China in human development, infrastructure connectivity and technology transfer is quite significant and China's investment in Africa is only growing. We are thankful to China's unwavering support for Africa's economic development."

Si Shujie, Chinese vice minister of the State of Council Leading Group office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP), underlined that the conference facilitates communications and cooperation between China and Africa on inclusive development and poverty alleviation.

Recalling the first such conference that was held in November 2010, the vice minister revealed that various discussions have been held on economic cooperation, agriculture modernization, poverty reduction, sustainable employment and other issues of common concern to China and Africa.

"Chinese government always attaches great importance to the cooperation and communication with African Union."

He recalled that the Chinese premier visited Africa in May at which time an outline was created to further strengthen cooperation on poverty reduction and other issues of common concern.

Xie Xiaoyan, Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, said China and Africa have attached great importance to poverty reduction and achieved substantial progress over the past years. "Poverty remains an important global challenge. As the biggest developing country and the continent with the largest number of developing countries in the world, China and Africa both face severe poverty challenges," the ambassador said.

Stating that China has accumulated experience on poverty reduction over the last 30 years, Xie reiterated his country's strong commitment to further strengthening cooperation with Africa on poverty reduction and industrial developmen.

"Chinese characteristics of poverty reduction include the very important practice of industrial development, especially the development of labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing," Xie said.

The conference will specifically look into three areas: scenario analysis of challenges and opportunities for Africa's industrial development in an increasingly integrated and globalized economy, building on regional and global value chains; experiences from rapidly industrializing countries in both Africa and Asia to unleash industrial growth for equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth; and developing robust public-private partnerships to promote innovation and technology transfer for sustainable economic and social transformations in Africa.