This Forum, for the past two decades, has had a major impact on the economic development and infrastructure of African countries. It received little coverage in the Western press, as did the Russian Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, where representatives from 75 countries attended from 3-6 September and 313 agreements worth 61.7 billion dollars were signed. Among them was an agreement between the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation. The Arctic is one of the most hotly contested areas in the world today, with powers and coastal countries vying for control of energy resources and new sea routes.
These forums were held at the same time and were a preamble to the forthcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, at which global issues were debated that will be decisive in the coming years in the struggle for world domination between the powers of the Global South and the G7 powers. At the Forum, the Chinese further entrenched their strategic dominance in Africa by signing a series of economic cooperation agreements and endowed with 50 billion to provide loans to African countries.
China has provided preferential loans to African countries for the construction of roads, railways, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, hydropower, ports and improved access to new communications technology. In addition to cooperation programmes in security, defence, education and other areas.
The forum was established two decades ago and for the past 15 years China has been Africa’s largest trading partner, surpassing the United States. Bilateral trade reached a record 282.1 billion dollars last year. Among the goals set by the Chinese and Africans in the Dakar Action Plan, the Chinese have proposed building more than 30,000 kilometres of highways on African soil, generating 20,000 megawatts of electricity, purifying more than nine million tons of water per day, and promoting industrialisation processes in the countries.
One of the most strategic Chinese projects in Africa was to link Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, with Djibouti by rail. It also linked the port of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on the Atlantic with a rail link and trade route to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Djibouti is one of the most strategic countries in Africa, as it is located in the area of influence of the countries of the Islamic Arc off the Arabian Peninsula, with coasts on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean.
Djibouti is the gateway to the Bab-al Mandeb Strait, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea via the Suez Canal. It is a route linking the markets of the countries of the Indo-Pacific region, the Middle East and Europe. The Bab-al-Mandeb Strait is one of the five key points in the control of global maritime navigation, one of the most important maritime routes for dominance and supremacy in international trade, and of vital importance for the new Silk Road in Africa and Asia.
In Beijing, the Chinese and Africans further strengthened economic cooperation policies in order to further strengthen political and economic ties. One of the central themes of the discussions was the progress in the construction of the New Silk Road in Africa, with the aim of achieving greater interconnectivity in the exchange of goods and services between the 2.91 billion Chinese and Africans.
China, with 1.412 billion people, and Africa, with 1.498 billion, account for 30 per cent of the world’s population. In fact, they are a huge market that has a great impact on the global economy, because it articulates and drives the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and China’s New Silk Road project in its four strategic components.
@j15mosquera
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Publish date : 2024-09-11 07:00:00
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