Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Thursday for joint efforts to
build a new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa.
Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses the
Nigerian National Assembly in Abuja April 27, 2006.
[Reuters] |
"China will continue to work with Africa and make innovative efforts in
keeping with the trend of the times to widen China-Africa cooperation, enrich
and inject new vitality into it," the Chinese president said when addressing the
National Assembly in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
Hu made the remarks one day after he started a two-day visit to the west
African country at the invitation of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
HU PRESENTS A FIVE-POINT PROPOSAL ON PROMOTING CHINA-AFRICA STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP
Early this year, Hu said, the Chinese government issued China's African
Policy, expounding on China's goals of carrying forward China-Africa traditional
friendship and building a new type of stragetic partnership with Africa in a new
era.
In order to achieve this goal, Hu put forward a five-point proposal in his
speech entitled "Work Together to Forge A New Type of China-Africa Strategic
Partnership."
1. To build a new type of strategic partnership, China and Africa should
strengthen political mutual trust.
"China will maintain close contact with African countries at the leadership
level and promote communication and exchanges between governments, parliaments,
political parties and non-governmental organizations of our two sides to enhance
mutual understanding and friendship," Hu said.
"China is committed to the effective function of the Forum of China-Africa
Cooperation and will continue to enhance its cooperation with the African Union
and other sub-regional organizations and regional multilateral institutions in
Africa to strengthen collective dialogue, broaden consensus and expand common
interests," the president said.
2. China and Africa should expand win-win economic cooperation.
With rich resources and market potentials on Africa's part and available
effective practices and practical know-how gained in the course of modernization
on China's part, China-Africa cooperation has broad prospects, Hu said.
"To enlarge the scope of China-Africa cooperation and diversify ways of
conducting such cooperation and enable both sides to draw on their comparative
strengths is in our mutual interests," said the Chinese president.
"China will make continued efforts to extend our cooperation in trade to
investment, technology and project contracting, and to encourage companies and
other economic entities to join our governments in conducting economic
cooperation," the president said.
Reiterating China's commitment to providing assistance to African countries
to the best of its ability, Hu said China will also pay greater attention to
knowledge-based cooperation with Africa.