South Africa to co-chair Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit

(Devdiscourse, Haryana India, 27 August 2018) President Cyril Ramaphosa is next week set to travel to Beijing, where he will co-chair the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. The gathering is set to put infrastructure and industrial development at center stage. “These areas are aimed at addressing the three bottlenecks in Africa, as identified by China and Africa, which are hampering Africa’s development, namely, inadequate infrastructure; lack of professional and skilled personnel and a funding shortage. To facilitate the implementation of these measures, China announced the provision of US$60 billion for funding support, which includes US$5 billion for grants and zero-interest loans and US$35 billion for concessional loans and export credit and US$5 billion for Technical and Industrial Project Funding. To build the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, China committed to implementing 10 cooperation plans with Africa, namely in the areas of industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security. To facilitate the implementation of these measures, China announced the provision of US$60 billion for funding support, which includes US$5 billion for grants and zero-interest loans and US$35 billion for concessional loans and export credit and US$5 billion for Technical and Industrial Project Funding.