Belt and Road Initiative: African, Chinese Friendship Associations Discuss Enhanced Cooperation

The conference on November 14, 2017 in Beijing was to explore more business opportunities.

Friendship associations from China and Africa under the Africa-China Friendship Organization gathered in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on November 14, 2017, for a one-day leaders’ meeting.  The theme was “New opportunities for the Belt and Road and Africa-China cooperation.”

At the opening, Abdul’ahat Abdurixit, President of the Chinese-African People’s Friendship Association, CAPFA, said the gathering came at a time China was entering a new development era after last month’s 19^th Communist Party of China, CPC national congress. He likened China’s destiny to that of Africa as the two sides enjoy close relations.  

Abdurixit said the Belt and Road Initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping in 2013 has benefitted many people in Africa. “To go further, we need to go together,” he cited Xi as saying last May at the Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation in Beijing. “I see a more harmonious future for Africa and China,” Abdul’ahat Abdurixit predicted in his conclusion.

Victor Sikonina, Madagascar’s Ambassador to China and Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, congratulated China on its new vision of relations with the world after the 19^th CPC national congress. He stated that Africa did not want to be left behind or play a second role in the Belt and Road Initiative, adding that his country was one of the first in Africa to sign up for the initiative in March 2017.

Kyosi Puso Gaborone, President of the Botswana-China Friendship Associ...