Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
His Excellency Ren Yisheng
Not long ago, the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee convened its Fifth Plenary Session. It has made arrangements for the formulation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for national economic and social development and long-range goals for 2035, and proposed new development stages, new development concepts and new development paradigm and other major thesis and important measures. For China’s development, the “Five-Year Plan” is an important way for the CPC to govern the country, and it is also a significant landmark for measuring China’s pace. From the beginning of New China’s first “five-year plan” in 1953 to the completion of the “13th Five-Year Plan” in 2020, China has created a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability that is rare in the world. The “Governance of China” has become more and more mature in this process.
During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, 55.75 million rural poor people in China have been lifted out of poverty; the annual grain output has stabilized at more than 1300 billion Jin(650 billion kilograms) for five consecutive years; the world’s largest social security system has been established, in which basic medical care Insurance covers more than 1.3 billion people, and basic pension insurance covers nearly one billion people; it is estimated that China’s GDP will exceed one trillion yuan(about 15 trillion USD) in 2020.
2020 is the decisive year for China to win the final victory in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-respects and the battle against poverty. Facing the severe challenges and difficulties brought about by the Covid-19 epidemic, the Chinese government acted swiftly and the people worked hard together to take the lead in controlling the epidemic. China’s economic and social development has been on the right track, becoming the only country in the world to achieve positive economic growth. This has laid a solid foundation for China to complete as scheduled the poverty alleviation goals and tasks of building a well-off society in all respects. China has also actively provided continuous anti-epidemic assistance to the World Health Organization and other countries and regions in the world, and promised that upon completion of research and development and once put into use, Chinese produced vaccine will be given priority to developing countries as a global public product, which fully demonstrates China’s sense of responsibility.
The “14th Five-Year Plan” provides a practical and effective development blueprint for China’s future economic and social development. The Chinese economy will shift from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. The new stage of development will put the quality of development in a more prominent position, with the deepening of supply-side structural reforms as the principle line, adhere to the principle of quality first and benefit first, effectively transform the development mode, promote reforms of quality, efficiency and dynamic change, so that development results can better benefit all people.
In the new stage of development, the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing will run through the entire development process and all fields, thus to achieve higher quality, more efficient, fairer, more sustainable and safer development. China proposes to achieve new progress in the construction of ecological civilization, and the total discharge of major pollutants continues to decrease. This is China’s firm commitment to protecting the environment and responding to climate change and other important issues shared by mankind.
The development of the new stage will accelerate the construction of a new development paradigm in which the domestic big cycle is the main body and the domestic and international double cycles supplement each other.
This is by no means a closed domestic cycle, but an open domestic and international double cycle. It is through open cooperation to promote the formation of a grand and smooth domestic economic cycle, better attract global resource elements, share development opportunities with other countries, and promote mutual benefit and win-win results. As the Covid-19 epidemic hits the world economy severely, this will not only benefit China’s own sustainable development, but will also bring more attractive and broader markets to the world.
As the green and sustainable economy continues to develop, China will not only further consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation, but also further make positive contributions to the realization of the United Nations sustainable development goals. I believe that China will take more solid steps in its future development. By 2035, China’s per capita GDP will reach the level of a moderately developed country, and a modern socialist country will be fully built.
As one of the largest economies in the world, China’s future development will inevitably have an important impact on the development of the world economy. It will not only inject greater confidence in the recovery of the world economy, but also bring more opportunities for win-win cooperation to the world. China has always been adhering to the policy of strengthening solidarity and cooperation with countries around the world, and its future development will also make greater contributions to the prosperity and growth of African countries and other countries in the world.
Africa is an important strategic partner of China. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China will realize a wider, broader and deeper opening up to the outside world, further strengthen cooperation with Africa, support the construction of a free trade zone on the African continent, and provide African countries with larger markets and more investment Cooperation opportunities. Liberia is an important country in West Africa. The relations between China and Liberia are excellent. China welcomes Liberia and other African countries to better participate in China’s “14th Five-Year Plan” process by seizing the opportunity to strengthen the docking of the “Agenda 2063” of the “African Vision and Action Plan” and the “Pro-poor Plan for Prosperity and Development” with such platforms as the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The two sides shall further strengthen the pragmatic cooperation in public health, Covid-19 vaccine, infrastructure construction, trade and investment, industrial capacity, human resource training, agriculture, poverty reduction, peace and security, etc. China-Africa and China-Liberia will work together to realize the common development, promote the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, and work together to build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.
His Excellency Ren Yisheng, is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Liberia.
