Source:(Kenya) Daily Nation 2013/08/02
Four months ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose some African countries as destination of his first state visit since he took office. He made an important speech entitled "Remaining reliable friends and faithful partners forever" in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, summing up the historical experience of China-Africa relations and expounding on China's policy of working with Africa to promote mutual development.
He stressed that the Chinese people were committed to realising the dream of rejuvenating the Chinese nation, while the African people are striving to prop up the African dream of self-development through unity and growth.
He passionately called for China and Africa to work together to achieve their mutual dreams.
The Chinese Dream was initiated and made prominent by President Xi in November 2012 when he proclaimed that "the great revival of the Chinese nation is the greatest Chinese Dream."
The Dream centres on the country's prosperity and people's happiness and aims at achieving two goals.
The first one was the goal of making China a "moderately well-off society" by about 2021, the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
The second is the modernisation goal in which China aspires to become a fully developed nation by about 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Just as one tree does not make a forest, China cannot develop itself in isolation from the world. In any case, the world also needs China for its development.
As China and Africa have always been a community with a common destiny with similar historical experiences and values, as well as shared strategic interests and development tasks, the Chinese dream is also closely connected with the dream of the African countries.
The more China grows, the more development opportunities it will create for Africa.
Fulfilling the Chinese Dream will promote peace and stability of the world and Africa in particular. As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a developing country at the same time, China will always be a firm supporter of peace and stability in Africa.
While advocating the respect of Africa's ownership in its peace and security issues, we will continue to shoulder our due responsibility and will be a positive stakeholder in this regard. A stronger China means a stronger friend and supporter for Africa.
Fulfilling the Chinese Dream will help African countries to explore their own development paths. China has gained a lot from its social and economic development process in the past 30 years, both successful experiences and miserable lessons. We are ready to share them with our African friends, so that it could be much easier for them to find short-cuts in their nation-building efforts and avoid making the same mistakes.
On the other hand, China can also learn and benefit from Africa's development through our interactions and pragmatic cooperation.
Fulfilling the Chinese Dream will open up numerous economic opportunities for African countries. China has become the largest trading partner and a major source of investment in Africa.
Going forward, China will maintain robust growth momentum. It is projected that in the coming five years, China's import will reach some $10 trillion, its outbound investment will reach $500 billion and the number of its outbound tourists may well exceed 400 million.
Africa, including Kenya, will obviously be among China's future partners. Meanwhile, the transfer of the advantageous industry chain from China to Africa will efficiently strengthen the competitive capacity of African industries and raise its products' added value. China-Africa economic, trade and investment cooperation has great prospects.
Furthermore, the unity and cooperation between China and Africa could steadily advance the reform of the international economic and financial systems, improve global governance, and contribute more to a sound and stable global growth.
China wants to see a prosperous Kenya and a prosperous Africa. We are pleased to see that, among other development goals of African nations are working hard towards achieving Vision 2030 development blueprint – the Kenyan Dream. The opportunities are already here.
What China and Africa need to do is to seize these opportunities and make full use of them.