SATURDAY’s re-election of the incumbent China’s President, Xi Jinping, to remain at the helm of the State, further signals a renewed hope to cement bilateral cooperation between the East Asian economic giant and African countries.
In China, President Xi is banked on as the most powerful leader, who stands firm and likely to peddle the country into high heights in development, after he successfully led the Chinese people to forge ahead in many sectors in the past five years, a record many must have put into consideration to further bank on him.
Political pundits in China, by all manners of definitions and descriptions, see Mr Xi as the right choice at this time when the country is ‘opening up’ and looking for more sincere trading partners globally for equal and shared benefits. While Chinese regard their leader as the right man at the core to push their global agenda or interests, Africans are actually viewing him especially his re-election, as a golden opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
There are perhaps three main things which African leaders are praying for to be fully implemented in his regime, for he is widely regarded as a believer of economic diplomacy based on his win-win situational approaches to development and relations.
These roll out as turning the “Belt and Road Initiative” concept into a reality, walking the talk on his staggering 60 billion USD pledge in grants, loans, credit and preferential financing for cash-strapped African countries and seeing into it that his “Win-Win idea is implemented.
Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Egypt are among the countries from Africa set to directly benefit from the Chinese BRI project that consists of the six economic corridors out of 68 countries--representing more than 60 per cent of the global population. This project remains a significant development strategy that is billed to promote economic cooperation among countries along the proposed Belt and Road routes.
It involves China underwriting billions of dollars for several infrastructure investments in countries along the old Silk Road, which links it with a network of countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. The initiative has been designed to enhance the orderly free-flow of economic factors and the efficient allocation of resources. It is clear that the Chinese government under leadership of Xi believes that this project just like others, will benefit all countries involved.
The country has gone even further to emphasise that all its development initiatives are transparent (with no strings attached) and follow the golden rules of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits for both sides. The scheme is in response to the unfolding doubts being suggested in some corridors that the project, and many others hatched by the East Asian and the world populous nation, would at the end of the day have one side benefit, which perhaps holds no water.
Africa believes that this BRI which is his (Xi) brainchild will fully benefit them as well as the Chinese government that is ready to work on the emerging challenges likely to hold back implementation of the initiative.
African leaders also on the other hand, are supposed to ensure that they put the enabling environment that would in turn make their people reap more from the project. For example, the continent is facing shortage of skilled labour and contemporary technology, which basically are of paramount importance in the course of the project implementation.
Failure to solve the above challenges-skilled labour and technology, African countries in this perspective will inadequately benefit from the initiative as they will be forced to import the technology and the skilled labour elsewhere outside the continent. Again, from Xi’s second term in office, African leaders are expected to see into it that the second world largest economy pumps in the whole 60 billion USD pledged to them for various development programmes and spent wisely.
This pledge was made in 2015 by President Xi in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. It is obvious that African leaders are delighted with Mr Xi’s re-election and are putting high hopes on him.
However, such hopes alone without hard-work will not help the continent to move forward, hence what is required above all, is commitment, diligence and political will to manage what is issued to them as well as their natural resources. Recently, Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, despite declaring that nothing will change China’s promise of sincerity, real results, friendship and faith to Africa, called on the continent to board its ‘fast train of development’ and work together for a community with a shared future for humanity.
This means that without individual efforts to bring about development for themselves, any assistance from China will not help the continental countries to attain sustainable development.
As African leaders are gearing up to meet Mr Xi, who is now poised to lead without term-limit in September at FOCAC planned in Beijing, the former ought to effectively use the opportunity to push for more development initiatives between the two sides.
China, the second largest world economy still stands at a better position to help Africa overcome challenges facing the continent, owing to the fact that its contribution to the global economic growth in 2017 exceeded 30 per cent.
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