BEIJING - On the final day of the Fifth Ministerial Conference on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), foreign ministers   of China, Egypt and South Africa said it had produced attainable results.

Twenty bilateral agreements were signed between 51 FOCAC members, according to Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi. Jiechi added that a plan of action for 2013 to 2015 was also drawn up during the conference, which attracted the largest ever number of participants from Africa this year.

A financial management forum and a young leaders forum were also established during the conference, according to Jiechi.
South African Foreign Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, announced that the next FOCAC meeting would be hosted in South Africa in 2015.

As co-chair of FOCAC for the next six years, Nkoana-Mashabane pledged that South Africa would live up to the action plan as adopted during the deliberations.

“We will work closely with China for priority projects and we will implement on the five key areas that were announced by [Chinese President, Hu Jintao],” she said. Nkoana-Mashabane further added that the African Union (AU) was commissioned as a full participant of FOCAC.

She emphasised that Africa is the world’s new growth point and stressed the need for industrialization and value addition of raw minerals and agricultural products, as well as the need to increase trade between China and Africa.

Egyptian Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, emphasised Egypt’s strong support of South-South cooperation, explaining that China’s efforts in assisting Africa is an inspiring example to the rest of the world.

The five key areas include the enhancement of people to people friendship; the promotion of peace and stability; the industrialisation of Africa and the acceleration of infrastructure development to promote intra-Africa trade.