Interview: Expert lauds FOCAC's major achievements in Africa

ADDIS ABABA -- The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is an "important forum" that has resulted in major achievements in Africa over the years, an Ethiopian public-policy expert said.

"When we see the FOCAC, it's an important forum that has resulted in major achievements in Africa specifically," Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua.

The expert, who also served as an economic advisor to the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), also stressed that the FOCAC "is not a kind of the colonial and post-colonial relationship that Africa has with others, where it mainly becomes only resource extraction."

According to the expert, in addition to the successful Sino-Africa ties under the FOCAC platform, China "is providing development imputes to African countries."

"We can look at Ethiopia now, we have built 74-km of roads. This was undertaken in a major way with Chinese loans and Chinese assistance. We have built about 20 hydro dams, and more than 50 universities have been established in Ethiopia, we have 11 industrial parks, the planned fertilizers and sugar factors... This is an example of FOCAC, where China-Africa cooperation is coming up with some fruit," the expert argued.

The expert also stressed that "FOCAC has been a great success."

Costantinos also stressed that the Sino-Africa cooperation "has become a South-South Cooperation, in which Chinese experience of lifting its people out of poverty, building its industrial prows, using its resources in a very efficient way, and developing its technology can be shared with African countries, which the west has never done in Africa."

In addition to FOCAC, the China-Africa cooperation comes in big ways, including the Belt and Road Initiative, which is providing resources, he argued.

According to Costantinos, the already existing China-Africa cooperation is also playing "vital role in further strengthening the blossoming ties in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic."

He also stressed that China's economic recovery would further strengthen the existing Chinese support to African countries, coming from different sources that also include the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), "will going to be a major driving force for developing nations in Africa to be able to develop their economy and infrastructure from the impact of COVID-19."

Costantinos stressed that China has "a lot of resources and the fact that Chinese cooperation comes in big ways is the difference between China and the Western world."

"Today we have to look into China as a potential to stabilize African economies, not to disintegrate it," he said.