The academic conference on the Belt and Road and African Development was held on October 21 in Yangzhou City, east China’s Jiangsu Province. During the conference, experts noted that Africa is an important partner in China’s efforts to press ahead with the Belt and Road Initiative. African countries have shown a strong desire to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Africa cooperation has demonstrated strong momentum.
The conference was held by the Chinese Society of African Historical Studies and organized by the Center of Sudan Studies and the College of International Studies of Yangzhou University. The two-day conference brought together more than 150 experts and scholars from nearly 60 academic institutions including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Peking University (PKU).
Conference attendees discussed the relationships between the Belt and Road Initiative and the prospect of further China-Africa cooperation, African country studies and China-Africa people-to-people exchanges.
Guo Haiyan, the counselor at the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, said that Africa has developed peacefully and stably overall. The 2015 Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation ushered in a new era of China-Africa relation characterized by win-win cooperation and common development.
China and Africa have maintained long-term cooperative relation which has expanded under the concept of mutual benefit and win-win result. In the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Africa cooperation is particularly promising, said Li Anshan, director of the Center of African Studies of PKU.
"China-Africa cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative are complementary to each other," said Li Dan, director of the Center of African Studies at China Foreign Affairs University, adding that China expects to employ its existing advantages to drive its own development and that of the developing countries so as to achieve win-win result.
The Belt and Road Initiative is open and inclusive. Many African countries have embraced the initiative with the hope of gaining access to further cooperation opportunities and the chance to learn about China's development experience.