How will the Beijing 10 Points Action Plan accelerate modernisation in Africa?

THE highly anticipated Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) ended with great success, with a declaration and a three-year action plan for ‘Joint building an all-weather community with a shared future backed by substantial financial support, underscored Beijing’s overarching vision for the continent.

At the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, President Xi said that China and Africa’s joint pursuit of modernisation will set off a wave of modernisation in the Global South and open a new chapter in the drive for a community with a shared future for mankind.

The ‘‘Global South Modernisation” proposed by President Xi Jinping underscores the importance of developing countries pursuing tailored development paths that address their unique contexts and challenges, rather than adhering to a one-size-fits all model.

This approach emphasizes the relevance of context and allows countries of the Global South to pursue strategies that reflect their socio-economic and cultural diversity.

The proposal to deepen China-Africa cooperation and lead the modernisation of the Global South reflects a strategic vision aimed at strengthening cooperation between China and African nations and positioning both China and Africa as key players in the development of the Global South.

The proposal also aims to promote mutual development and advance the modernisation of the Global South and is based on a strategic framework that emphasises economic, political and cultural ties.

In expressing China’s commitment to helping African countries grow their economy and achieve sustainable development, President Xi said that China stands ready to work with Africa to implement 10 partnership actions to jointly advance modernisation.

He also proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic tie with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterisation of China-Africa relation be elevated to an all-weather China Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

The 10-point action plan announced by President Xi, covers the areas of mutual learning among civilisations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, healthcare, agriculture and people wellbeing, people-to-people exchanges, green development and common security.

These actions plan covers basically all aspects of modernisation, reflecting China’s confidence and sincerity in promoting modernisation with Africa.

To ensure the successful implementation of the 10 partnership initiatives, President Xi pledged that, China will provide Africa with 360 billion yuan almost ($50.7billion) in the next three years.

Per the action plan, China will grant duty-free treatment to 100 per cent of the tariff lines of products from least developed countries with diplomatic ties with China.

In his keynote speech, President Xi also promised that China will voluntarily and unilaterally open its market wider for Africa product.

The Chinese government’s decision to grant duty free treatment to 100 per cent is significant because China is the world’s second-largest economy and therefore having that opportunity available to Africa will not only address the trade imbalances that we have often seen many African countries expressing concern about but will also greatly boost the African economy as there will be a limitless market, particularly for agricultural products.

China’s duty-free treatment will also help African countries increase their export volume and ensure steady growth in China-Africa agricultural trade.

In addition to that, by opening up new Chinese markets, this will stimulate and make Africa farmers expand the scope of cultivating modern and productive agriculture.

Through the partnership action for connectivity, Africa’s digital economy will be immensely boosted.

Africa has generally lagged behind in terms of the digital economy often due to lack of connectivity.

By expanding Africa’s connectivity infrastructure, this will lower transactional costs within and across countries, which is important in promoting the continent’s regional integration efforts.

In addition to that, this plan will play a crucial role in enabling African countries to bridge their infrastructure gap and achieve their AU Agenda 2063 goals.

Also, under the action plan, President Xi said that China will send 2000 medical personnel and public health experts and 500 agricultural experts; He said that China will implement 20 healthcare and malaria treatment programs, and 30 clean energy and green development projects.

He also said that China will encourage Chinese businesses in Africa to create no less than 1 million local jobs and it will provide 60,000 training opportunities with priority given to programs for woman empowerment and youth development.

Through the above partnership action in agriculture, China aims to help African countries to modernise agriculture, increase productivity and raise the number of agricultural Experts.

As we all know, China has been actively supporting African countries to improve abilities in realising food security and has always been sharing its agricultural development experience and technology with African countries.

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Apart from that, China has also been supporting African countries in improving agricultural production and processing and helping them to build their agricultural value chains and trade.

Since 2012, 7,456 African trainees have received agricultural training in China.

Through projects such as sending Chinese agricultural experts to Africa, more than 50,000 Africans have been trained and 23 agricultural demonstration centres have been built.

Thus, these 500 new Chinese agricultural experts will help provide professional training to many Africans and guide them on how to conduct modern and productive agriculture.

Through partnership action in medical and healthcare, the Chinese government has always ranked people and lives above everything else.

Through concrete actions, China has helped African countries respond to various epidemics and build a public health system and promoting a China-Africa community of health.

Over the past 60 years, China has sent a total of 23,000 medical team members to Africa, who has treated 230 million patients and save their lives.