By STANDARD CORRESPONDENT
Nairobi will host African scholars interested in the growing relations between the continent and China at a meeting scheduled for March 28-30 next year.
The recent past has witnessed rapid growth in economic relations between Africa and China. This has inadvertently led to calls from the academia and researchers for a measured African conceptual response to the challenges and opportunities associated with China’s engagement with the continent.
These concerns found accommodation in 2000 when a council of 80 African foreign ministers meeting in Beijing with Chinese government and business community resolved to launch the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
The Beijing meeting also launched two official documents, Beijing Declaration of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and Sino-African Cooperation Guidelines for Social and Economic Development.
Research
The documents lay the framework for China and Africa to build long-standing, stable and mutually beneficial new relations.
Themed Towards a New Africa-China Partnership, the Nairobi forum will officially launch the Pan-African Forum for Research and Dialogue on Africa-China Relations, in collaboration with Chinese academic institutions.
"The meeting wants to build a strong knowledge base on Africa-China relations to support African policy makers in their engagement with China," Prof Osita Eze, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs said in Dakar.
He called for the involvement of African and Chinese scholars in the Africa-China trade relations.
