South Africa, Johannesburg, Sandton, ICC
4 December 2015

Your Excellency, Mr. Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa
Your Excellency, Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China
Your Excellency, President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Chairperson of the African Union
Excellencies, Heads of State and Government
Excellency Deputy President Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa
Honourable Ministers
Leaders of our Private and Cultural Sectors
Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic mission, Representatives of International and Regional Organisations
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured to address the 2nd Summit of the Forum for China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on behalf of the African Union Commission. Our sincere gratitude to the President, Government and people of South Africa for hosting this august event and their legendary hospitality and to the President of the People’s Republic of China for co-chairing the Summit.

Excellencies,
The theme of this Summit, China-Africa Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development, is very appropriate to the type of cooperation and friendship we must continue to build, which is based on historical ties of trade links that go back centuries, mutual support and respect, and enduring friendship.
The FOCAC Summit in 2000, which was the first, came after the end of apartheid, as the continent was once again marshalling its forces to throw off the shackles of indebtedness, underdevelopment, poverty and marginalisation. It is clear, from China’s experience that it is indeed possible to modernise and develop rapidly, following an endogenous path of development. China Africa co-operation is indeed a model of a true partnership.

Agenda 2063: The Africa that we want, is our own and Africa’s transformative path for development, which aims at achieving an Africa that is integrated, prosperous and peaceful driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.
Excellencies;
This gathering represents the hopes and aspirations of about 2.5 billion members of humanity. We must therefore ask ourselves: “what are the few areas that will lift our people out of poverty and help them live up to their aspirations in the context of a win – win cooperation and friendship?” I think the speech of H.E. President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China has answered the question very clearly on what win-win cooperation as a true partnership is.
Taking into account that Africa has a young population in an aging world, by 2050 it will have the biggest labour force in the world.
Over and above the excellent cooperation we have in peace and security with China, let me emphasize a few other priority areas:
- We should enhance the political dialogue between the African Union and China;
- The second area that was mentioned is that Africa spends about 80 billion dollars per annum on food imports. Working together, we can ensure that Africa becomes self-sufficient in food supply by modernising agriculture, increasing productivity, engaging our communities and farmers, in a full value chain, including agro-processing and agro-business;
- Secondly, industrialization is a requisite centrepiece of this win-win collaboration and friendship. Using our comparative advantages we must work together in promoting key enabling sectors;
- There is need for us to beneficiate our natural and mineral resources, to create jobs for our young population. Also, unprocessed commodities have a higher price volatility than processed minerals, particularly for ores and metals, with annual fluctuations in prices ranging around 23% for unprocessed, while only 13% for processed ones;
- Fourthly, we must accelerate the implementation of our Memorandum of Understanding on infrastructure, that includes Highways, Railways, Aviation and Industrialisation;
- There can be no industrialisation without enhanced energy generation. We must leapfrog by using newer technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro. So that our development doesn’t contribute to the greenhouse gas emission and climate change we see.

- All of the above will require skilled personnel. Africa spends about 5 billion dollars per year in importing these types of skills. This cooperation must therefore be the wind behind the sail of our skills revolution. We must focus in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) as these are critical in supporting youth entrepreneurship, youth employment and innovation.

- We must also continue to work together to develop and improve the public health system in Africa, and in this regard we put on record our appreciation to China for the timely response to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and forits cooperation with the AU towards the operationalization of the African Centre for Disease Control.

- Agenda 2063 enjoins all of us to mobilize, galvanize and work with all sectors of our societies to achieve these laudable goals, especially the private sector, institutions of higher learning, civil society, women and youth.

Excellencies
We both have a very rich cultural heritage. And we must promote cultural exchanges and tourism, as was said and enhance people to people cooperation, strengthening cooperation between the African women and the Chinese Women Federation.
In conclusion, I would like to refer to what the Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang said in 2014, when he argued that Africa should be considered a ‘pole’ in a multipolar world, and also characterised Africa and China as spiders, which can work together to “tie down a lion”.
This means we can indeed overcome the biggest challenges facing humanity today, such as poverty and underdevelopment, and achieve the common objectives of prosperity, peace and friendship, thus realising the aspirations of our peoples.
Having listened to H.E. Xi Jinping, I am convinced that FOCAC will scale the height, and it us what we call a win-win partnership. Working together, we can redress the historic injustice in the United Nations.
As our President of the Union said, we can show concretely and historically what China is doing to achieve that which is the theme of the Summit, “China-Africa working together in a win-win cooperation for common development. So as the Commission, we are determined to work harder and faster to ensure that all those things that we have to do with China can be achieved.

I thank you