Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba has emphasized concurrent development among nations as the underlying value of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Mbumba visited Beijing in September for the 2024 FOCAC Summit, the largest diplomatic event China has hosted in recent years. The three-day summit, which ran from Sept 4-6, aimed to deepen ties and outline future cooperation between China and Africa.
In an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG), Mbumba said FOCAC is highly complimentary with China's other international initiatives that promote fairer global development.
"FOCAC is based on other initiatives, for example, the Belt and Road Initiative, which is a program, an initiative of China to make sure that where development is needed, is necessary and is needed not for the benefit of one country, but for the benefit to develop trade, develop economy, to develop science, to develop education. It is necessary, therefore, that this forum is very, very important, very unique. We are here talking about the business; We are here talking about trade; We are here talking about the issue of mining, the issue of developing new forms of energy, and therefore we are comfortable with those types of arrangements. We will continue to cooperate with China in many, many respects," he said.
Mbumba also stressed that China has taken on a leadership role in promoting the sharing of innovations and the leveling of the scientific playing field.
"If we are to talk about development right now, you can't talk about development without thinking or talking about China. We have to work together, first in the area of peace to create stability in the world, to make sure that science, technology, innovations and general development in the scientific field is shared openly. So if we can do that, then China and Africa will develop concurrently moving forward, and that will bring real prosperity to the people of the world," said the president.
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Concurrent forward movement of China, Africa to promote world prosperity: Namibian president
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Concurrent forward movement of China, Africa to promote world prosperity: Namibian president