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Spotlight: AU, China reiterate commitment to taking relation to higher level

Xinhua, June 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

The African Union (AU) and China have expressed their commitment to the implementation of the outcomes under the Johannesburg summit of the Forum China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and to taking the relation between the two sides to a higher level.

This came on Thursday when Zhang Xiangchen, deputy international trade representative with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, met and held talks with Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission at the Headquarters of the pan-African bloc in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

After discussion, AU and China have signed agreement of three documents for cooperation including on Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC).

During the FOCAC summit held last December in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced 10 major areas of cooperation with Africa including cooperation on the health sector.

At the opening of their discussion, Mwencha noted that Africa and China have been strengthening their cooperation on trade, investment, and technical cooperation, also under FOCAC and other platforms, which has brought mutual benefits to the peoples of Africa and China.

Stating that AU always attaches great importance to the cooperation with China, the Deputy Chairperson said the latest agreement signed would help bring the level of cooperation between the two sides to a higher level.

"The fact that six months down the road we are now signing an agreement to continue with the implementation shows the commitment in both sides to realize the benefit out of this," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Zhang noted that the main purpose of his visit to the AU was to discuss ways of implementing the outcomes of the FOCAC summit in Johannesburg and further enhancing the cooperation with Africa on infrastructure, public health and other important areas.

"Infrastructure cooperation and public health cooperation are the two priority areas for the cooperation between AU and China. After fruitful discussion, we reached a broad consensus on strengthening cooperation in the two areas. These three documents demonstrate our willingness to continue our cooperation in the two main areas," noted Zhang.

The MoU on Africa CDC aims to encourage the promise of Chinese government made by President Xi at the Johannesburg FOCAC Summit to help Africa improve its public health.

On the basis of the MoU, China will support AU's efforts to the establishment of the Africa CDC and will provide assistance in infrastructure construction and operation of the Africa CDC.

China has already provided financial support amounting to 2 million U.S. dollars for the Africa CDC, which will be the first regional organ in the field of public health on the African continent. Endit