Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC): Towards better trade relations

Dozens of African leaders have, once more, gathered in China for the triennial Forum on China African Cooperation (FOCAC) holding through September 3 and 4th 2018. This year’s edition themed: China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win” is coming at a time China is even more desperate to strengthen relations with as many regions and countries as possible to soften the impact of the debilitating trade war initiated by Donald Trump, the erratic president of the United States, on it

The forum, which started in 2000, is in its fifteenth year, and has seen trade, investment and political cooperation between Africa and China rise to unprecedented levels. When the forum began in 2000, trade volume between China and Africa was a mere $10 billion. However, the volume has greatly increased over the last fifteen years and has reached $300 billion in 2015, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. Similarly, China’s investments in Africa are witnessing unprecedented growth and, according to the Chinese Premier, will rise to some $100 billion dollars by 2020.

For African countries, the intercourse with China has been a huge blessing. Over the last eighteen years, China has poured huge resources into large scale infrastructure projects in most part of Africa. It has financed and built rail projects, roads, airports, stadiums and other capital intensive projects – projects for which either Western and particularly American companies lack the requisite risk appetite for or charge prohibitive and exorbitant prices for.

Although the Chinese buys mainly commodities from Africa, recently Chinese companies are beginning to diversify their interests into other sectors such as telecoms where they are the leading suppliers of phones and equipments to Africa. Crucially also, Chinese companies are now helping African countries to expand their manufacturing base.

There is no doubt that China currently benefits more than Africa from the trade relations and cooperation. Its main imports from Africa – commodity – don’t command particularly high prices and are easily obtainable from other sources. Despite that, the trade is hugely beneficial to Africa because they have one more market for their commodities and have access to another market for less expensive imported goods and services on which they depend for their survival. Besides, the huge construction works undertaken by Chinese companies and their diversification into manufacturing in Africa have created millions of badly needed jobs in Africa.

However, African countries must step up their game to benefit maximally from the trade and cooperation with China. At the last FOCAC held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2015, President Xi announced at the conclusion of the forum that he and African leaders have reached consensus on lifting China-Africa relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

One concrete way African countries can benefit maximally and be taken seriously in the international arena is to begin to eschew aid, gifts and trivial assistance and push for more trade and cooperation on equal terms. It was a dent on the reputation of the continent that China had to build and donate the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. If African countries were so naive to think it was a free gift, they got the shockers of their lives when it was discovered recently that China, which also paid for and built the computer network at the AU headquarters, inserted a backdoor that allowed it to transfer data. The hack was only discovered in 2017, a good five years after, when technicians noticed that between midnight and 2am every night, there was a peak in data usage even though the building was empty. It was later discovered AU’s confidential data were being copied on to servers in Shanghai. Of course, they couldn’t complain loudly because the headquarters and everything in it was gifted to them by China.

We commend the expanding trade and investments between China and Africa as a concrete manifestation of South-south cooperation – an initiative that unites developing countries in their efforts to pursue self-reliance and development. However, we urge Nigeria and other African countries to up their game, diversify their economies and position their economies to benefit maximally from the expanding trade with China rather than being known exclusively as sources of cheap commodities.