The Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, and the Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, represented Cameroon at the 7th Ministerial Conference of the on-going Forum on China- Africa Cooperation in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Sunday.

Also attending the meeting were foreign ministers and ministers or representatives responsible for foreign economic and trade affairs from 53 African members of the FOCAC and senior representatives of the African Union Commission.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Chinese Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan cochaired the meeting with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu and South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies.

After a review of the implementation of the follow-up actions of the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, the conference reviewed and adopted a draft of the Beijing Declaration – Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future and a draft of the Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021) of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The adopted draft Declaration will be forwarded to leaders from African countries and China for ratification today. The Beijing Declaration focuses on promoting industrialisation in Africa, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, among many others. Meanwhile, the Beijing Action Plan focuses on legislative exchanges, agriculture, food security and food safety, industry partnering and industrial capacity cooperation, infrastructure development, energy and natural resources, ocean economy, science and technology, knowledge sharing, tourism, trade and finance, among others.

President Xi Jinping on behalf of the Chinese government will today put forward the specific vision on building a China-Africa community with a shared future, and announce proposals and measures by the Chinese side to strengthen China-Africa cooperation in the future. Sisulu said African countries appreciate China’s long-term assistance and support, admire its enormous achievements, and are willing to learn from the country’s development experience. Newcomer countries, The Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Burkina Faso were welcomed and congratulated as new FOCAC members.