Madam Sun Baohong, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, at the opening of a two-day conference on China-Africa Relations on Tuesday in Accra, said China would assist African countries to educate and train about 200 million adolescents.

The conference, which was opened by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, was on the theme; “Building Resilient Industries and Infrastructure for Economic Transformation in Africa: The Role of China.”

It seeks to come up with recommendations towards the improvement of China-Africa relations.Madam Sun said China-Africa co-operation had intensified since the establishment of the Forum on China Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) in 2000, adding that the 2006 Beijing Summit of FOCAC witnessed the establishment of a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership.

The Chinese Ambassador said the new partnership featured political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange. Madam Sun said the Chinese Government also had 10 major areas outlined for China-Africa cooperation namely industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure, finance, green development, trade and investment and poverty reduction.

She also mentioned public health, cultural and people to people exchanges, and peace and security with a total of 60 billion US dollars funding from China. The Chinese Ambassador said the mutual political trust between China and Africa, coupled with pragmatic cooperation, had yielded fruitful results.

“China-Africa trade volume in the peak year of 2014 reached 220 billion dollars, which was 22 times as much as the year 2000, when FOCAC was established,” she said. Madam Sun said in the first quarter of 2017 the growth rate of China-Africa trade reached 16.8 percent.

She said whilst China was currently the largest trade partner of Africa, Africa on the other hand was the third largest investment destination, and the second largest contract engineering market for China. The Chinese Ambassador said China would continue to promote all-round cooperation with Africa, combining the needs of African countries and the advantages of each side.

“Currently, we would advance cooperation in key areas such as infrastructure connectivity, capacity production, agricultural modernisation, human resource, poverty reduction and public health in order to help Africa realise the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” she said.

The conference was organised by the Institute of Democratic Governance with support from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.