Chinese President Xi Jinping virtually participated in the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Monday. In his keynote address, Xi pledged that China will provide Africa with an additional one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We must continue to fight together against COVID. We must prioritise the protection of our people and close the vaccination gap...To reach the target set by the African Union of vaccinating 60% of the African population against COVID-19 by 2022, China will provide another one billion doses of vaccines to Africa, of which 600 million doses will be provided free,” Xi told the summit on Monday. The remaining 400 million will be secured through other sources, such as investments in production sites.
#FOCAC opened today in #Dakar by Co-Chairs: Presidents @Macky_Sall #Senegal & #XiJinping #China; AU Chair: Pres #FélixTshisekedi #DRC; AU Vice-Chairs: Presidents @AlsisiOfficial #Egypt, #AzaliAssoumani #Comoros, @CyrilRamaphosa #SouthAfrica; and @AUC_MoussaFaki & @antonioguterres pic.twitter.com/dnyvDOGBYZ
— ChinaAfricaBlog (@ChinaAfricaBlog) November 29, 2021
In the past, Beijing has already supplied nearly 200 million doses of the vaccine to the continent, but the promise of additional doses comes on the heels of growing concerns about the spread of a new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in southern Africa. Currently, vaccination rates on the continent remain low compared to the rest of the world. Due to the lack of local production facilities and the prohibitive costs of mass purchases, several African nations continue to remain dependent on foreign donations.
Ahead of the conference, a key document called the “2035 vision for China-Africa cooperation” was formulated, which outlined the vision of their partnership and listed areas of cooperation for the next three years. According to the document, China will work with African nations on nine projects: “health, poverty alleviation and benefitting farmers, trade promotion, investment drive, digital innovation, green development, capacity building, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.”
According to state-owned media house Global Times, China will “help Africa implement 10 poverty reduction and agricultural projects, send 500 agricultural experts to Africa, establish a “green channel” for African agricultural products to be exported to China, further expand the scope of zero-tariff treatment products from the least-developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and strive to achieve a total import volume of $300 billion in products from Africa in the next three years.”
Xi also said that his government would encourage Chinese companies to invest at least $10 billion in the continent over the next three years. He further announced that a China-Africa cross-border yuan centre would be set up in the near future to provide a credit line of $10 billion to African financial institutions. No further details have been provided yet.
The FOCAC comes soon after United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his three-nation tour of Africa. The trip by the senior US diplomat was viewed as an indication of the US’ return to multilateral foreign policy on the African continent, where the US has lost significant ground to China. “I believe Africa will shape the future, and not just the future of the African people, but of the world,” Blinked said during the trip.