The second ministerial meeting of the forum was held successfully in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa at the end of 2003. State and cabinet heads from 13 African countries and 70 ministers from 44 countries participated in the meeting. Over 150 Chinese business people and 350 African business people participated in a summit held on the sidelines.

To facilitate the exportation of African goods into the Chinese market and help African countries to develop their economy, the Chinese Government has granted zero-tariff treatment to 190 categories of goods from 28 least developed African countries.

Propelled by the forum, Sino-African trade has registered rocketing growth for the last five years. In 2005, the Sino-African trade reached $39.7 billion, up by 30 percent year on year. The growth rate is much higher than the average foreign trade growth level.

In terms of trade and economic cooperation, what new plans and new visions does the Chinese Government have? What are the prospects for development?

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Sino-African diplomatic ties. The Chinese Government released China's Africa Policy, which emphasized the consolidation of traditional friendship, broadening cooperation areas and put forward a new strategic partnership constituting mutual political trust, economic benefit and cultural communication. In April and June respectively, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao embarked on a 10-nation tour in Africa, which greatly prompted the development of the new strategic partnership between China and Africa.

China and African countries, with broad consensus and common interests on many issues, have a strong desire to enhance and deepen cooperation. In future, the Chinese Government will continue to take practical measures to promote the common economic and social development of China and Africa according to the principles of equality, mutual benefit and common development.

First, China will actively boost Africa's export to China. Toward this goal, China has already implemented the zero-tariff policy on some exports from Africa's least developed countries, which stimulates the increase of Africa's exports. In the future, the Chinese Government will encourage Chinese companies to select African exports under the same conditions, which will create a fairer international environment for African countries' foreign trade.

Second, China will try to connect aid to Africa with economic and technological cooperation, which is targeted at enhancing Africa's self-development capacity. Sino-African cooperation will first and foremost consider the real demand of Africa and try to combine efforts to nurture its economic strength with efforts to promote social development; combine economic aid with technological cooperation and combine governmental promotion with business enthusiasm. China will bring real benefits to African people by engaging itself more in ventures in culture, education and health care. The Chinese companies investing in Africa will be educated on the important of project quality, efficiency, environmental protection and corporate responsibility.

Third, China will encourage person-to-person exchanges. This includes the exchange of visits of business people from both sides and creation of opportunities for mutual understanding and cooperation provided by chambers of commerce and industry associations. The Chinese Government has plans to enhance the cooperation between two sides in tapping human resources and exchanging successful experience. African countries will have more management and technological personnel.

The third ministerial meeting of the forum is to be held in Beijing this November. The meeting has been given an unprecedentedly high status in the history of Sino-African relations. We believe this summit will breathe new life into Sino-African trade and economic cooperation and push bilateral cooperation to a higher level.