An international symposium on China- Africa relations has been held here to explore the new ways of strengthening the cooperation between China and African countries.

More than 50 Chinese and Zimbabwean experts and scholars on international relations gathered together on Wednesday to discuss the issues relating with prospects and challenges for the future development of China-Africa and China-Zimbabwe relations.

Yuan Nansheng, the Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, said in his opening speech that China and Africa have a common pursuit of friendship, peace, cooperation and development. It is of great importance to explore new ways for the growing China-Africa relation in a bid to promote further cooperation between the two sides.

"China and Africa share increasing common interests and have a growing mutual need. Building strong ties between us will not only promote development of the both sides, but also help cement unity and cooperation among developing countries and contribute to establishing a just and fair new international political and economic order," he said.

To realize the goal of the Beijing Summit and to enhance the new type of strategic partnership, China will deepen political relations of equality and mutual trust, broaden win-win economic cooperation and expand exchange for cultural enrichment, he added.

Visiting Chinese scholar Zeng Qiang, professor with Institute of Asian and African Studies under China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, gave a keynote speech on China-Africa relations since the introduction of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000.

Zeng said China-Africa relations have entered a new period of cooperation, with both sides striving for the development of a new type of strategic partnership.

Sincerity, equality and mutual benefit, solidarity and common development have become the major themes for China-Africa exchange and cooperation and the driving force to lasting China-Africa relations.

Phyllis Johnson, executive director of the Southern African Research and Documentation Center, said China's Africa Policy acknowledges the significant contribution that the African people have made to the progress of civilization through long years of struggle that "free them from colonial rule, wiped out apartheid, and won independence and emancipation."

She said the partnership was notably strengthened through the mechanism of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and the recent Summit resulted in an ambitious framework of collaborative plans and milestone called the Beijing action Plan. The summit was just six months ago, and the plan is already being implemented.

The commitment by the Chinese government to the urgency of development on the continent is well in line with that of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has its own impending targets for a Free Trade Area in 2008, a Customs Union in 2010, and a Common Market in 2015.

This region now offers investors an attractive market of some 240 million people, said Johnson.

Source: Xinhua