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China talks sustainability and climate protection in Africa
AFRICA
CHINA is talking up its sustainability and cli- mate protection credentials in Africa in a bid to deepen its socio-economic in uence across the continent.
At a recent conference in Pretoria, Chinese o cials argued that using Chinese technology and innovations would be a key tool in driving economic development in Africa.
Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian said that China and Africa could co-operate in such areas as climate protection, technical innovation and poverty reduction.
“In future, China and African countries will organise thematic conferences, joint research projects and training programmes focusing on governance experience exchanges,” Lin said.
“China has demonstrated how a country can transform itself through innovation and technol- ogy,” said Daan du Toit, deputy director-general for international cooperation and resources in the South African department of science and technology.
“There are opportunities of collaboration in innovation and technology between China, South Africa and Africa. China has expressed strong commitment to partners in Africa in these areas,” he said.
He mentioned that China and Africa have been collaborating in forestry, mining, manu- facturing and research centres, and the future of cooperation is bright.
While a major source of investment in Africa,
there is concern among Western-orientated development finance institutions (DFIs) that Chinese investment and co-operation leaves government with high levels of debt.
Chinese investment is often accompanied by strong political ties, while Beijing’s funding models are criticised for being non-transparent and unfair.
Nevertheless, China sees Africa as a key investment destination, while military and polit- ical ties are strong.
In mid-July, China held the rst China-Africa Peace and Security Forum, where Beijing hosted 50 o cials from African governments and the African Union to discuss security co-opera- tion. Beijing already has on military base is in Djibouti.
Other initiatives include the Forum on Chi- na-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
At the G20 meeting in Osaka in June, Chi- nese President Xi Jinping hosted a China-Africa leaders’ meeting, where he stressed the three main points of Beijing’s strategy: China-Africa cooperation; supporting the development of Africa and the work of the United Nations; and safeguarding multilateralism.
e focus on multilateralism and the UN is a key concept, and means watering down Western in uence in Africa through US and European development nance institutions (DFIs) and the multilateral developments banks (MDBs).™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 48 05•December•2019