1、China and Africa has long been friends, with the two sides cooperating in a variety of areas, especially in the economic field. But there are now new trends in the traditional friendship between China and African countries.Zhou Jingnan has more details.At the second China-Africa Peoples Forum held i
2、n Suzhou of east Chinas Jiangsu province, experts are expressing the idea that both China and African countries are at the crossing of their economic development.Dean of the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University, Liu Hongwu, says the biggest change for the African countries in t
3、he past fifty or sixty years is the formation of the concept of modern country.Most African people are now considering themselves as a member of a modern country, which has equipped the intellectuals with an incentive to make a change to their countries.According to Prof. Liu Hongwu, in around 2040,
4、 people under 30 years old in Africa will account for 60 percent of that in the whole world, which will guarantee a huge labor force market.Theres also 60 percent of land remaining undeveloped in Africa.Prof. Liu predicts the African continent will become the biggest emerging market in the next ten
5、to twenty years.At the same time, China is also facing the necessity to change after 30 years of fast development.Chinas special representative on African affairs, Ambassador Zhong Jianhua, emphasizes the importance of transforming Chinas economy.Chinas economy has come to a point that we have to tr
6、ansform it. We can no longer continue with that kind of primitive or preliminary development. You have to transfer some of the labor intensive work to other countries. For Ambassador Zhong, Africa would be the best potential other countries, and he explains why.They have the huge demand to improve t
7、heir lives, they have the huge demand to build the house, infrastructure, industrialize themselves, including every daily consumer goods, all these things, when they have a small scale, you can supply with the export, when they have the large scale, you have to set up all these workshops in the cont
8、inent. As the fourth largest investor in Africa, China is welcomed in the continent. But rather than accept Chinese firms hiring people from China to work in Africa, African people are now expecting more.Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo encourages Chinese firms to employ local people in A
9、frica.I would (like to) see that when Chinese contracting firms are working in Nigeria or anywhere in Africa, .they can get ?, let them source it locally.Former President of Ghana John Kufuor echos Obasanjo by recommending local university graduates to Chinese firms.Since Africa is opening up, and s
10、ince China is growing in presence, I believe the companies from China should come with their plants open. You set up a construction company, and engage some of the graduates from universities, then we know share and ?.With opportunities and challenges lying ahead, both China and Africa need to be more creative and more patient to sort out the differences between the two sides, and make their cooperation more mutually beneficial than ever before.For CRI, Im Zhou Jingnan in Suzhou.
