The upcoming China-Africa Summit to be held in Beijing will further strengthen existing cooperation and renew assurances of solidarity, while giving a clear direction on many of the issues which are affecting the global community in particular the developing world, said a Namibian high-ranking official on Thursday.

Bernharadt M. Esau, deputy minister of trade and industry, said in an interview with Xinhua that the forum will offer a platform for Chinese and African leaders to exchange ideas on global issues and challenges facing both Africa and China, such as the current stalemate in the WTO negotiations, global security and stability, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, and so forth.

"We are here to review progress made since the last high level meeting of the Forum on China-Africa, and in particular the implementation of the roadmap of action which was then agreed upon, " he said.

"Economically, we should see trade and investment, and technical cooperation efforts been increased between China and Africa in old and new areas such as infrastructure development, construction, mining exploration, agriculture, tourism and services and many others," he added.

The official urged all agreements entered into be implemented and results which are mutually beneficial derived from such implementation. In this way, dialogue between China and Africa will remain vibrant, justifiable and concrete, as new issues are added to replace the old agenda.

"For example, in the past our dialogue and interaction centered on the political emancipation of both China and Africa. Today, through implementation of what we have agreed, that agenda has now been replaced by the economic agenda, which we have already agreed upon in the sense we would cooperate to develop our economies," said the official.

"The implementation process has now commenced and just need to be accelerated," he stressed.

Source: Xinhua