FOCAC 2015: China's dream help African dreams

A worker admires a display of miniature high-speed railway trains by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation at an exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday. LUCIE MORANGI / China daily

In mid November 2015 I attended the 6th World Forum on China Studies in Shanghai and met two young African female student participants from Nigeria. One of them, an exchange student and resident in Shanghai, volunteered to take us out shopping to buy souvenirs.

During the excursion I was struck by the positive and varied responses and reactions we received from local people on the underground and walking around the markets. I was from South Africa and the students were from Nigeria. We were in Shanghai to learn whether, leading up to the summit of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, December 2015, the dream that China was building can help us in Africa build our own dreams for development. On the flight back to South Africa I realized that Africa, home to over 1.1 billion people from 54 countries, is fast becoming a focus of China’s new multilateral approach to development.

As China’s new strategy is expected to grow its economy by 6.3% in 2016 there is evidence to suggest that China’s interconnected economy is refocusing its international investment towards emerging and developing economies as they show greater dynamism and growth potential. Compared to 2.2%, growth projections in advanced economies China is relatively still the best possible international development partner for emerging and developing economies. Overall emerging and developing economies are expected to grow by 4.5% in 2016, with Sub Saharan Africa at 4.3%, and low income developing countries at 5.8% (IMF, World Economic Outlook, October 2015).