Roundup: Xi's speech at FOCAC summit shows desire to lift ties with Africa -- Sudanese analysts

Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) reflected China's desire to upgrade the China-Africa ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Sudanese analysts said.

In a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second FOCAC summit, Xi called for concerted efforts to strengthen "five major pillars" and announced 10 major plans to boost bilateral win-win cooperation.

"The content of President Xi's historical speech reiterated the importance China is attaching to the African continent together with the sincere desire of the Chinese leadership to make China's relations with Africa strategic," Abdul-Rahim al-Sunni, a Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua Friday.

"The Chinese president's proposal to upgrade the ties with Africa to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership reiterates China's determination to press ahead with boosting its win-win ties with the continent," he added.

"The participation of the Chinese president in the forum reflected China's concern with developing the historical ties with the African continent and boosting those ties further through major plans and ambitious projects that achieve benefits for both sides," Abdul-Ghader Abdul-Halim, a lecturer of political science at a number of Sudanese universities, told Xinhua.

Also describing Xi's speech as "historical," Abdul-Halim said that since the establishment of the forum 15 years ago, the two sides have achieved great success with bilateral trade increasing from 10 billion U.S. dollars to 220 billion dollars.

He added that Chinese investments in Africa have jumped from 500 million dollars to 30 billion dollars.

Abdul-Halim also stressed the importance of the second FOCAC summit, noting that "Africa needs to enhance its partnership with China to make use of the Chinese potentialities to achieve sustainable development."

The second FOCAC summit began in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday with the participation of Xi and a number of African presidents.

During the summit, Xi announced that China would offer 60 billion U.S. dollars of funding support, including 5 billion dollars of free aid and interest-free loans, 35 billion dollars of preferential loans and export credit on more favorable terms, 5 billion dollars of additional capital for the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) each, and a China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund with an initial capital of 10 billion dollars.

"China-Africa relations have today reached a stage of growth unmatched in history," Xi said. "Let's join hands ... and open a new era of China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development."

Established in 2000 to promote China-Africa friendship and cooperation, FOCAC groups China, 50 African countries that have established diplomatic ties with China, and the Commission of the African Union. Its last summit took place in 2006 in Beijing. Endi