Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has stressed the importance of the Afro-Chinese Co-operation Forum in promoting solidarity on the basis of mutual interests and gains and in confronting the negative repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
The president’s remarks came as he took part on Monday via videoconference in the China-Africa Co-operation Forum, with the participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a number of African presidents.
The president also asserted the necessity of coordination between Africa and China in issues related to strengthening peace and security, with the aim of achieving the desired goals in the African Development Agenda 2063 and based on the principles of state sovereignty and respect for their national priorities.
In his statement to the forum, President Sisi emphasised that recovery from the coronavirus’s negative effects on economic growth rates requires the consolidation of trade and investment co-operation in such a way that benefits peoples of the continent, in addition to alleviating the burden of accumulated debts and helping small and medium-scale companies to overcome the economic crisis.
He stressed in this context that economic recovery from the pandemic requires strengthening trade and investment co-operation in a way that benefits the peoples of the continent, including relieving the accumulated debts as well as helping small and medium-sized companies to overcome the economic crisis.
In the same context, the president stressed the need to complete the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in order to achieve economic and trade integration, which requires pumping more investments in infrastructure projects for the continental link between African countries.
The president also stressed the importance of maximising the benefits of lessons learned from the expertise of countries that have made great strides in containing the coronavirus and transferring those expertise to build the capacities of the countries most in need to help them overcome this crisis.
The president referred to the importance of the forum in promoting solidarity based on achieving mutual interests and gains between the two sides, in order to confront the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on economic growth rates.
President Sisi also referred to the African Union for Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development Centre, whose headquarters Egypt will host, as a model for co-operation with China on the basis of spreading security and stability across the continent.
On climate change, President Sisi stressed that confronting this challenge requires solidarity, taking into account the negative economic and social effects of climate change on various parts of the African continent, pointing to Egypt’s intention during the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention For Climate Change, which it will host in 2022, to work with all parties on behalf of and in the interest of the African continent.
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