AYV News, September 3, 2024
Sierra Leone’s President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, accompanied by the First Lady Dr. Fatima Maada Bio departed Freetown International Airport to attend the 2024 China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing, scheduled from September 4-6, 2024.
The couple, formally invited by President Xi Jinping of China, will join global leaders to discuss strategies for enhancing China-Africa cooperation. The Summit’s theme, ‘Joining together to promote modernisation and build a high-level China-Africa community for the future,’ aims to strengthen collaboration across multiple sectors.
The Summit will be held in Beijing from September 4-6, 2024, with African leaders and members of FOCAC scheduled to attend.
Since the inception of the FOCAC in 2000 and the China-Africa Development Fund in 2006, China’s economic ties with Africa has deepened significantly. Over the past two decades, what have been the impacts and implications of China’s growing economic presence on the continent?
Ahead of the FOCAC, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center has produced a suite of research investigating the trends, outcomes, benefits and risks of China’s economic engagement with Africa.
China’s Vice Foreign Minister, Chen Xiaodong, said the 2024 Summit of the FOCAC will be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6.
The leaders of China and Africa will gather around the theme: ‘Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future’ to celebrate friendship and chart the way forward for cooperation. This marks another grand reunion of the China-Africa big family following the 2006 Beijing Summit, the 2015 Johannesburg Summit, and the 2018 Beijing Summit of the FOCAC.
It is also the largest diplomatic event China has hosted in recent years, with the highest attendance of foreign leaders. Leaders of many African countries and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission will lead delegations to participate in the Summit.
The UN Secretary-General will be a special guest and relevant international and regional organizations will also attend the Summit as observers.
Chen Xiaodong said that the Summit will hold a welcoming banquet, opening ceremony, four high-level meetings on the topics of state governance, industrialization and agricultural modernization, peace and security, high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, as well as the eighth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs and other related activities. President Xi Jinping will deliver an important keynote speech to elaborate on the new ideas and propositions on building a high-level community with a shared future between China and Africa, and announce new actions and measures for practical cooperation with Africa. President Xi Jinping will also hold related bilateral activities for foreign leaders attending the Summit. The Summit will also adopt two outcome documents, the Declaration and the Action Plan, to build major consensus between the two sides and chart a path for implementing high-quality China-Africa cooperation in the next three years.
