China will bolster SA’s skills revolution

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma welcomes China's commitment to help Africa build its own capacity in areas such as agriculture and skills.

Focac: Johannesburg - In her speech at the opening of the Forum for China-Africa Co-operation (Focac) in Johannesburg on Friday, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma welcomed China's commitment to help Africa build its own capacity in areas such as agriculture and skills.

The chairperson of the African Union Commission opened her speech by noting that the summit represented the hopes and aspirations of about 2.5 billion people.

She said Chinese president Xi Jinping's earlier speech had, to a large extent answered the question of what could be done within this co-operative agreement to lift African people out of poverty.

She said China's experience showed that it was possible to develop rapidly after a long period of under-development and noted that Africa's relationship with China was based on historic ties that went back centuries and was characterised by mutual support, respect and friendship.

But crucially, she said, the Africa we want, one that is integrated, prosperous and peaceful and represents a dynamic force in the global arena, was one that was driven by its own citizens.

Dlamini-Zuma noted that Africa, which had a “young population in an ageing world”, spent $5 billion on importing skills every year. This partnership with China, she said, “must be the the wind behind the sails of our skills revolution”.

AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY