Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is our first group meeting since the conclusion of Forum for China-Africa Cooperation.  We invited Your Excellencies here mainly to update you on the progress of the follow-up of the Forum and listen to your comments and suggestions.  After the Forum, you, like us, are most interested in the execution of the achievements of the Forum or the follow-up actions.  The Chinese Government, from the top leadership to the competent authorities such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MOFTEC, vests great importance on this matter.  As soon as the Forum was concluded, we began to study the concrete steps and schemes for the follow-up implementation.  Now, I would like to share with you some main developments in this regard.

I.The Follow-up Committee of the Chinese Side of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation has been established, serving as an institutional guarantee of the smooth implementation of the follow-up actions.  Following the Forum, we decided, after thinking carefully, to incorporate 21 departments into this Committee.  All of them are ministries, commissions, departments and agencies of CPC Central Committee and the State Council that are closely related to Sino-African cooperation.  In addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MOFTEC, the membership of the Committee is composed of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, State Development Planning Commission, State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, People’s Bank of China, General Administration of Customs, State Taxation Administration, State Environmental Protection Administration, National Tourism Administration, the Municipal Government of Beijing, Bank of China, Import and Export Bank of China, and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.  Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Minister Shi Guangsheng of MOFTEC are its Honorary Co-Chairmen.  Vice Minister Sun Guangxiang of MOFTEC and I are its Co-Chairmen.  Under the Committee, there is a Secretariat with the Director-General of the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being the Secretary General.  The office of the Secretariat is located in the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  On 25 December 2000, the Committee held its first session in Beijing to mark its establishment and to officially start its work.

II.Efforts have been made to enhance political consultations and promote the exchange of high-level visits.  In order to fulfill the strategic goals mapped out in Beijing Declaration and further intensify the political contacts and consultations with the African side, Vice President Hu Jintao visited Uganda last January and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan visited Libya, Central Africa, Cameroon, Gabon and Angola.  During these visits, Chinese and African leaders exchanged ideas with an emphasis on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Forum.  On February 9, I myself will also leave for Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Cote d’lvoire and Namibia.  Moreover, the Chinese side has taken the opportunities of receiving visiting African state leaders and officials overseeing diplomatic or economic affairs to exchange ideas with the African side on how the two sides would work together to implement follow-up actions.

III.Concrete items of cooperation such as debt relief and human resources development have been deliberated with no delay.  Upon the conclusion of the Forum, we began the consultations, account verification and negotiation pertaining to debt relief with African countries in accordance with relevant provisions of the Program for Cooperation.  During Vice President Hu Jintao’s visit to Uganda, the Chinese and the Ugandan sides signed the agreement on exempting a part of Uganda’s debt, making the country the first beneficiary of China’s debt relief program.  Relevant departments of the Chinese side are considering the detailed scheme on human resources development.  Generally speaking, China will accept more African trainees.  On debt relief, I would like to stress on two points: 1) China is also a developing country, facing the pressure to repay 140 billion US dollars of foreign debt.  The commitment of the Chinese Government to relief African debt is completely a move of South-South cooperation and mutual assistance among developing countries.  We hope to push, through our own actions, the international community to pay more attention to the question of African debt and adopt pragmatic, effective and speedy plans to address it so that Africa’s debt burden can be genuinely eased; 2) China’s debt relief program is different from those of developed countries and international financial institutions in the sense that it is free from political conditions, broader in beneficiary coverage and simpler and quicker in ratification procedures.  Being neither a member of Paris Club nor that of the Executive Committee of HIPC Plan, China has never committed to a debt relief program in accordance with the standard of Paris Club or HIPC Plan.  Our debt relief program is independently formulated in the light of the specific conditions of China and African countries and is a matter between the two sides of China and Africa.

IV.National Seminar on Africa Work has been convened to give an overall consideration of China-Africa economic cooperation and trade.  From 27 to 29 November 2000, MOFTEC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly sponsored National Seminar on Africa Work in Beijing.  The representatives from ministries and commissions of the central authority, local governments and enterprises were invited.  The participants focused their debate on how to accomplish the tasks put forward by the Forum, discussed how to advance Africa work, Sino-African economic cooperation and trade in particular, and set forth concrete measures.  The Seminar collected the ideas and suggestions of enterprises.  But more importantly, it encouraged and mobilized Chinese enterprises to invest and carry out trade activities in Africa.  In the future, more meetings of this kind may be held, centering on implementing relevant provisions of the Program for Cooperation.

V.Active exploration has been carried out on cooperation in new areas such as environmental protection, tourism and science and technology.  At the Forum, the two sides agreed to further extend the scope of cooperation into some new areas.  It was for the purpose of actively exploring, with African countries, new areas of cooperation that China’s Follow-up Committee admitted some relevant departments that were not included in the PrepCom of the Forum.  Relevant departments of the Chinese Government are considering and planning to first launch pilot projects in the new areas of cooperation after which the scope of cooperation can be expanded based on the successful experience achieved by these small exemplary projects.

So far, I have reported what the Chinese side has done in some important areas in merely three months after the Forum.  My briefing is not only to show that the Chinese side takes the follow-up actions seriously but also to take this opportunity to exchange views with Your Excellencies.  Since it is an undertaking of our two sides, only when we work hand in hand can the Forum play its due role and become an effective mechanism facilitating substantive progress in Sino-African cooperation in the new century.

According to the Program for Cooperation, we will hold a senior officials’ meeting in two years and a ministerial meeting in three years to review the implementation of the documents produced at the Forum.  Both of these meetings are to be held in Africa.  To facilitate an early preparation, the Chinese side is ready to exchange views with African countries on their schedule, venue and agenda.  Furthermore, the mode of operation of the follow-up mechanism needs to be defined in greater details.  For example, further discussion is needed to decide how to determine the host country of these two meetings and whether it is necessary to formulate rules of procedure.