- He said his country will in the next three years inject Sh6.5 trillion in Africa for projects.
- This will be geared towards achieving modernisation, as contained in the 2025-2027 Focac Beijing action plan.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
China now wants to take her 70-year relationship with Africa a notch higher with deepening ties and more cooperation towards a shared future.
President Xi Jinping yesterday proposed to African heads of state and government in Beijing to elevate their shared bilateral relations to strategic relations and ensure equality in modernisation.
Strategic relations are specific forms of bilateral relations between states, and between states and non-state actors.
They shape the social structures of the international system and provide venues for bilateral interaction and the realisation of international roles.
He said his country will in the next three years inject Sh6.5 trillion in Africa for projects. This will be geared towards achieving modernisation, as contained in the 2025-2027 Focac Beijing action plan.
The amount will be broken down to Sh3.8 trillion of credit line, Sh1.4 trillion of assistance in various forms, and at least Sh1.2 trillion in investment in Africa by Chinese firms.
In addition, China will encourage and support Africa in issuing panda bonds in their country to enhance result-oriented cooperation in all areas.
“In promoting modernisation, we should not only follow the general rules, but also act in light of our national realities,” President Xi said.
Speaking on behalf of Eastern African region, Tanzania’s president Samia Suluhu said there is a lot to celebrate about China’s partnership with Africa.
She said it has brought hope, development and prosperity. “China’s commitment to Africa has been key to promoting common goals.”
President William Ruto has been fighting poverty in Kenya through programmes meant to increase food security.
Kenya hopes to benefit significantly from the Sh6.5 trillion that China will provide for African countries.
The funds are meant to implement the 10 partnership actions that President Xi outlined to help in the modernisation of Africa.
Agriculture is among the sectors that China will help with.
President Xi said apart from the Sh18 billion, China will provide African emergency food assistance. They will also build 100,000 standardised agricultural demonstration centres on about 6,670 hectares to help farmers come up with better quality products.
This is in addition to sending 500 agricultural experts to Africa and establishing a China-Africa agricultural science and technology innovation alliance.
“We will implement 500 programmes in Africa to promote community welfare. We will also encourage two-way investment for new business operations by Chinese and African companies. This will enable Africa to retain added value and create at least a million jobs,” Xi said.
China is also prepared to carry out 30 infrastructure connectivity projects in Africa.
Others are to promote high quality Belt and Road cooperation, and put in place a China-Africa network featuring land-sea links and coordinated development.
In sports development, China said they will help in the 2027 African Cup of Nations which Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will jointly host.
“We will replenish the China-World Bank Group Partnership Facility to boost Africa’s development. We support Africa in hosting the 2026 Youth Olympic Games and the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations,” President Xi said.
In the green development sector, China will launch 30 energy projects in Africa and put in place meteorological early warning systems.
It will also carry out cooperation in disaster prevention, mitigation and relief as well as biodiversity conservation.
“We will create a China-Africa forum on peaceful use of nuclear technology, establish together 30 joint labs and collaborate on satellite remote sensing and lunar and deep sea exploration,” Xi said.
However, this could run into opposition in Kenya with various NGOs’ raising their voices against any nuclear plans in Kenya.
Centre for Justice Governance and Environmental Action, led by Phyllis Omido, has been fighting plans by the government to set up a nuclear power plant in Uyombo, Kilifi county.
The lobby says it will kill the endangered species in a Unesco biosphere that Uyombo is in.
President Xi said all this is contained in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan 2025-2027, which was endorsed at the summit by all African countries.
The action plan, Suluhu said, will greatly boost African countries’ economic development.
President Xi said because China and Africa account for one-third of the world’s population, there will be no global modernisation without the modernisation of China and Africa.
He hit out at the West saying they are implementing a skewed version of modernisation, which is biased towards them only.
“Modernisation is an alienable right of all countries. But the Western approach to it has inflicted immense sufferings on developing countries,” he said.
“Since the end of World War 2, third world countries represented by China and African countries, have achieved independence and development one after another. They have been endeavouring to redress the historical injustices of the modernisation process,” he said.