Xi’s programmes on China-Africa cooperation highly commendable

By John M.Mtui

In the opening ceremony of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held on November 29 and 30, 2021 in Dakar, Senegal, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed nine programs to be implemented by China and African countries under the first three-year plan of the “China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035”.
The nine programs cover the following areas: health and medical services, poverty reduction and agricultural development, trade promotion, investment promotion, digital innovation, green development, capacity building, and peace and security.
On December 1, the official blog of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation of Tanzania published a comment of Foreign Minister Ambassador Liberata Mulamula on FOCAC’s 8th Ministerial Conference.

Ambassador Mulamula attended the Conference as head of the Tanzanian delegation. Calling the Conference “a great success”, Ambassador Mulamula said that China’s decision to prioritize the construction of pharmaceutical and vaccine factories and to support development of small and medium-sized enterprises was commendable as those were the issues that Tanzania emphasized in its statement, adding that they were relieved when President Xi Jinping promised to help in those areas.
Ambassador Mulamula also said that China had emphasized and focused on agricultural development in order to complement efforts by African countries to get rid of poverty and promised to provide more funding and bring in experts for agricultural development.
Obviously, Ambassador Mulamula was satisfied with the outcomes of FOCAC’s 8th Ministerial Conference. Apart from what the Tanzanian Foreign Minister commended in her statement, the nine programs proposed by President Xi have the following key components:
First, China will provide another one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Africa, including 600 million doses as donation and 400 million doses to be provided through such means as joint production by Chinese companies and relevant African countries.
Second, China will help build or upgrade schools in Africa, and invite 10,000 high-level African professionals to seminars and workshops.
Third, China will open “green lanes” for African agricultural exports to China, speed up the inspection and quarantine procedures, and further increase the scope of products enjoying zero-tariff treatment for the least developed countries (LDCs) that have diplomatic relations with China.
Fourth, China will encourage its businesses to invest no less than $10 billion in Africa, and encourage Chinese companies in Africa to create at least 800,000 local jobs in the next three years. China will also help African students to find jobs through a new scheme called employment “through train”.
Undoubtedly, China has put great emphasis on the areas relating to African people’s livelihood, including health, agriculture, poverty alleviation, education and capacity building. These areas are actually where the most pressing needs of the continent lie.
Some western media reported that China reduced its finance pledge to Africa amid growing debt concerns, saying that Beijing lowered its commitment from $60 billion to $40 billion in investment, credit lines, trade finance and special drawing rights. This interpretation is misleading because the sum of $40 billion excludes the cost of the one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines China is going to provide to African countries. By the way, not all of China’s commitments have been ascribed a monetary value. For instance, in the green development program proposed by President Xi, China will undertake 10 green development, environmental protection and climate action projects for Africa. For this pledge, China has not given a monetary value, but definitely China will fund these projects, no matter solely or jointly with African partners.
Actually, it’s incorrect to interpret any change of China’s finance pledge through a lens of “Africa’s debt distress”. It’s more important to look at what the borrowed money is used for. . If loans are used for infrastructure that enables citizens to raise their productivity and create new business markets or models, and interest rates are kept low, it’s not a bad thing to borrow a large amount of loans from China or any other foreign lenders.
To sum up, the nine programs proposed by President Xi is commendable because it meets the most pressing needs of African countries, i.e. protecting people’s health from Covid-19, poverty reduction, job creation, and skills development. The allegation that China has cut its finance pledge to Africa is not true because it has not included the cost of the one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be provided by China, and not all the commitments made by China have been given a monetary value.

_____________________________________________________________

Dr John Mtui is a lecturer at the School of Economics, University of Dar es Salaam. Email: [email protected]