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China-Africa Think Tanks Forum kicks off in South Africa

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 4th China-Africa Think Tanks Forum (CATTF) kicked off in Pretoria on Wednesday with a call for strengthening bilateral relations.

CATTF is an initiative launched by Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) in 2011 to create a platform for dialogue and exchanges between Chinese and African thinkers.

Speaking to delegates during the official opening session of the meeting, Professor Jiang Guojun, President of the ZJNU, said the two-day meeting is to discuss ways of strengthening China and Africa's development initiatives, interests and reality.

"The forum has created new channels and motivation to China-Africa cooperation and communication. It has become a high platform for dialogue," Jiang said.

He said China and Africa have always been a community with a shared destiny and interests.

"The two have established a solid and deep friendship through mutual support in development and their common struggles.

"We want this forum to enhance that friendship, promote cooperation and inject new motivation into deepening Africa and China's development programs,"Jiang said.

In her remarks, Ambassador Mxakatho Diseko, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa, urged members of the CATTF to come up with strategies that will help China and Africa overcome their challenges.

"It should empower us with solutions where the world is changing very fast. We want to share common strategies to ensure that our relationship is effective.

"The forum has a bigger role in terms of changing the narrative about China and Africa's relationship," said Diseko.

She said both China and Africa continue to play a key role in the global economy.

Diseko said, "It seems to me that between China and Africa we hold what is needed for sustained global growth.

"We hold the cards for sustained global recovery."

Joel Netshitenzhe, Executive Director at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, praised China-Africa relationship as "unique."

Netshitenzhe said, "As China reconfigures its economy and climbs up the manufacturing sophistication ladder, this present an opportunity for Africa to learn basic manufacturing skills and use those to beneficiate the continent's resources.

The 4th meeting of CATTF is being hosted by ZJNU, Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa.

Key issues being discussed during the two-day meeting include, implementation of Africa's agenda 2063, Africa's relations with the world, Sino-African Productivity Cooperation and what the two can learn from each other. Endit