What can we expect from the upcoming FOCAC summit?

Editor's note: Bereket Sisay, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, writes on international affairs with a special focus on Africa. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

This year's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit is just around the corner, with only a few days left until the meeting. Beijing is gearing up for another monumental event that will mark and set a new direction for China-Africa relations. It's been more than two decades since China and Africa created FOCAC as an evolving mechanism to chart a common course for the way forward. The platform has played an important part in cementing the relationship so far, and it has served as an important vehicle to further expand the scope of the partnership amidst global turmoil, characterized by divergence and fracturing. In a nutshell, FOCAC serves as both a navigational compass and a blueprint in the whole bundle of the China-Africa partnership, which has yielded tangible mutual benefits over the course of its tenure.

Official data shows that China is Africa's largest trading partner for the 15th consecutive year, with two-way trade of $282.1 billion, while the stock of Chinese direct investment in Africa exceeded $40 billion in 2023. Thus, the upcoming FOCAC summit is undoubtedly geared towards the continuation of this flourishing momentum of mutual benefit, as well as the push for the further enhancement of relations for a shared future.

However, the summit comes at a critical time, with geopolitical tensions rising, climate change becoming more evident. These compounding challenges are taking a heavy toll on the Global South, including Africa, as they affect the supply side of the global value chain.

Against this backdrop, despite Africa's strong economic performance and remarkable resilience, structural transformation in Africa has been slow and uneven. Addressing this will therefore require a comprehensive solution. The FOCAC summit may therefore need to focus on how to make Africa more resilient and how to help Africa achieve long-term economic independence.

In this context, the three initiatives/plans proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, namely the Initiative on Supporting Africa's Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa's Agricultural Modernization and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development, could be very important in addressing Africa's outstanding structural problems. Accordingly, the summit is expected to contribute to better implementation of these three plans.

One of the initiatives is to help Africa's manufacturing sector diversify its economy. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB)'s 2022 report, Africa is at the bottom of the global value chain, accounting for only about 1.9 percent of global manufacturing. Moreover, African economies are still too dependent on commodities, while its contribution to job creation and GDP is very low. To make this sector robust enough to contribute its fair share to the economy, support from countries such as China, which has pledged to channel more aid, investment and financing into Africa's industrialization process, is therefore crucial.

Similarly, China's plan to support Africa's agricultural modernization by encouraging Chinese companies to increase agricultural investment in Africa and strengthen cooperation on agro-technology is another milestone in helping to address its own challenges. Although agriculture is a major contributor to Africa's economy, the sector has been underdeveloped to the extent that it cannot fully feed its growing population, not to mention the other benefits it would bring if it were better modernized. China is very important in helping to change this reality, as it has a lot of experience in modernizing its agricultural sector that Africa can easily tap into. Therefore, cooperation between the two sides in this regard has been of great value.

The third plan, which is on talent development, is also a step forward in helping Africa overcome the continent's bottlenecks. The plan could provide an opportunity for Africa to harness its population dividend and facilitate effective technology exchange for its economic development. African countries should therefore push to further strengthen cooperation to accelerate some of the gains made in recent years in these areas.

In parallel, the summit is also expected to promote the inflow of various Chinese investments into Africa, as the continent's financing gap for these investments is huge, estimated at about $402 billion annually by 2030, according to AfDB data, and this will require increasing domestic resource mobilization and promoting private sector investment, including foreign direct investment. One thing to remember is that Africa's economic modernization and diversification is still a long way off, given the challenges the continent now faces, but it should be achievable in the shortest possible time with such valuable international cooperation.

The FOCAC summit, by bringing together government officials from various countries, can also convene and deliver solutions on how to cement people-to-people relationships along with other aspects. It can also make recommendations on the current global governance system and its challenges, particularly the inclusion of voices from developing countries.

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