By Ma Hailiang
After the 18th CPC National Congress, the reporter interviewed people from South Africa's financial and industry and commerce sectors. Luo Zhuoyu, managing director and general manager of Standard Chartered China-Africa, told the reporter that the 18th CPC National Congress was of great historic significance to maintain China's prosperity and development and would have profound and lasting influence on the world economy. The financial sector of South Africa generally holds optimistic view about the prospects of the cooperation between China and Africa after the 18th CPC National Congress.
The financial sector of South Africa focuses on four aspects of the Report delivered by General Secretary Hu Jintao. First, the report proposes to deepen reform of the financial system, improve financial supervision and oversight, promote financial innovations, and ensure financial stability. Africa's rather backward financial industry is a bottleneck to expanding China-Africa cooperation on economy, trade and investment. China's initiative in advancing financial system reform and innovation will serve as a demonstration and a boost for Africa's financial industry. This indicates that human resources exchange and business cooperation in the financial sector between China and Africa will enter a new phase in the future.
Second, the Report attaches the upmost importance to the development of agriculture, proposing that coordination between urbanization and agricultural modernization and the integration of urban and rural development are fundamental solutions to the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. This provides new opportunities for the development of agriculture in Africa. In the process of the integrated development of China's rural areas and the urban areas, a large number of agricultural personnel will change careers. There are vast land resources and abundant of labor resource in Africa, but technology, capital, and talent are lacking, whereas China's agricultural industry possesses mature experience, human resources, and technology. China's agricultural enterprises can go to make investment in Africa, and the development prospects of the agricultural cooperation between China and Africa are vast.
Third, the Report stresses that China will follow the path of peaceful development, mutual prosperity, and mutual benefits. Western countries generally have strings attached when they are cooperating with Africa. China, however, will stick to mutual benefit and win-win strategy and will not interfere with Africa's internal affairs, which accords with the will of the people and provides a solid foundation for the development and prosperity of the cooperation between China and Africa.
Fourth, the Report proposes to double China's 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents by 2020. In order to achieve this goal, a series of supporting measures will inevitably be adopted in China, which means that China will continue to expand export from Africa, ushering in a new robust development phase for the economic cooperation between China and Africa. The Chinese economy will continue to play the role of the locomotive of the world economy and drive the recovery of the global economy.
Wang Longshui, chairman of Chinese General Chamber Of Commerce in Africa, told the reporter that the commerce and industry sector of Africa had watched CPC's 18th National Congress closely. He posted the highlights of the 18th National Congress Report on the Chamber's site. In his opinion, the Report has greatly boosted the hopes and confidence of African entrepreneurs, including Chinese businessmen in Africa, for the prospects of trade and investment cooperation between China and Africa.
Firstly, the Report makes an accurate judgment of the environment China is currently in: China remains in an important period of strategic opportunities for its development, a period in which much can be achieved. This indicates that China's basic state policy of taking economic development as the central task has not changed and that the major trend of the rapid development of the cooperation on economy, trade and investment between China and Africa has not changed, which, for the African economy, is the best news. The industry and commerce sector in Africa will probably usher in a new phase of development opportunities, the development prospects in the coming decade being particularly promising.
Secondly, the Report proposes to accelerate the change of the growth model, carry out strategic adjustment of the economic structure, speed up the establishment of a long-term mechanism for increasing consumer demand, and expand the domestic market. The strategic significance of this for the development of the African economy is two-fold: first, as China's growth model changes, the transfer of labor-intensive industries resulting from the adjustment of China's economic structure will present a historic opportunity for the development of Africa's industrialization. Currently, as Africa's industrialization is still at its initial stage, it is anxiously looking forwards to foreign investment, particularly investment from China. Over the past ten years, the volume of China's direct investment in Africa has increased from US$ 500 million at the end of 2002 to a swapping US$ 14.7 billion at the end of 2011, and more than 2000 Chinese enterprises have established business operation in Africa. In the next decade, China's investment in Africa will enter a new phase of growth.
Thirdly, China's establishing a mechanism for increasing consumer demand and expanding its domestic market mean that its import from Africa will continue to grow steadily. In the past 10 years, the trade volume between China and Africa has increased from US$ 12.39 billion in 2002 to US$ 166.3 billion in 2011. In the coming 10 years, trade between China and Africa can be expected to enter another phase of steady and rapid development.
In short, China's grand goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in 2020 will drive rapid economic and social development in Africa. The CPC's 18th National Congress gives Africa's industry and commerce sector a glance at the prospects and future opportunities. The future of China-Africa cooperation on economy, trade, and investment is bright and promising, and there are a lot for African entrepreneurs to achieve.
