TRIESMAN SPEECH - CHINA AND AFRICA CONFERENCE (28/06/06)
Event:China and Afica Conference
Location:London
Speech Date:28/06/06
Speaker:Lord Triesman
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be able to join you today. And may I thank the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Canadian High Commission for inviting me to take part in the opening session of this conference on such an important topic.
Let me make clear from the start that Britain welcomes China's increased engagement in Africa. And before I consider the potential, which I believe is significant, for a strong partnership between Britain and China in Africa today, I should like to take a wider look at the impact China is making on the world.
I'm sure that I hardly need remind our Chinese colleagues here that 772 days remain until the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. As we expect in London in 2012, when 20,000 of the world's newspaper, radio and television and internet journalists will be here along with half a million spectators a day during the London Games, in 2008 the world's attention will be firmly fixed on China. I have absolutely no doubt that the Beijing Olympics will be a truly unique and remarkable event. The world is already looking to China to see a glimpse of the future. Barely a day goes by without the media broadcasting or writing about the breath-taking pace of change underway, particularly in China's cities. China has captured the world's imagination. People want to know much more about China and they are travelling there in their tens of thousands.
How different is the media coverage of Africa. Conflict, hunger, disease. It is as though, in media terms, there are no good stories to tell. Millions displaced from their homes for all three reasons. And how often is the lack of development in Africa contrasted with the astonishing growth and decline in poverty rates in Asia. As the Commission for Africa Report states, from the 1960s though to the 1980s the average income in sub-Saharan Africa was twice that of both South and East Asia. The average income in Africa is now well below half of that in East Asia. It is indeed a difficult, perhaps grim, picture for Africa but I believe that the tide may be turning.
And it is turning because, mercifully, most of the continent's conflicts have ended. Most of the countries have democratically elected leaders. But above all because there is a new determination in Africa amongst many of its leaders to work together through the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the Africa Peer Review Mechanism to resolve conflict, tackle bad governance and corruption and build a sustainable economy. And there is progress, however faltering, however slow on every front. But Africa needs a vast amount of help from the international community.
And that is what really matters. We don't see international action in Africa as a zero sum game or colonial style competition. What matters for all of us is that the engagement should be in support of the new African agenda led by Africans, that is the NEPAD agenda of democracy, transparency, peace and the market. And China shares those objectives – Premier Wen Jiabao, who has just completed a tour of seven African countries, said in South Africa last week, that China 'encourages African countries to improve democracy and the rule of law and to maintain social justice and equality'.
Much help was committed by world leaders last year – 2005, the year of and for Africa. Doubling of aid, substantial debt relief, fairer trade and universal access to free healthcare and education for children. Our task now is to ensure that those commitments are honoured by ourselves and by our international partners to set Africa on a path to permanent peace and prosperity.
It is very encouraging, therefore, that China has decided to make 2006, in the words of Chinese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs He Yafei : ' major year for China in Africa'.
China has always had close links with Africa. Its connections go back over a thousand years. Between the ninth and twelfth centuries Chinese explorers reached what is now Somalia, then Malindi and Zanzibar. Chinese coins and porcelain were exchanged for African gold, ivory, rhinoceros horns and precious woods and spices. In modern times China has helped to construct Africa's transport infrastructure including building the TanZam railway in the 1970s linking Zambia with Dar es Salaam.
Today China has extensive commercial interests in Africa. The volume of trade between China and Africa has quadrupled since 2001, standing at almost 40 billion US dollars in 2005. China expects this figure to reach 100 billion dollars within the next five to ten years. More than eight hundred Chinese companies are operating in Africa. There are some nine hundred Chinese financed projects and Chinese investment is increasing significantly, helping to fuel strong growth in many countries. And where that investment is in transport infrastructure, particularly for landlocked countries, it will help stimulate further growth in internal trade between African countries, an area still under-developed for many economies on the continent.
The development of China's future relations with Africa is set out in a comprehensive Chinese government paper, published in January, including political co-operation, economic development, education, health and environmental issues and peace and security.
These are issues which are fundamental to Africa's future development. In many of them we share common aims and interests. So I would like to explore how we might work in partnership to help achieve our mutual objectives. That wish to work together was clearly signalled by the Prime Minister's decision to invite a Chinese representative, Ji Peiding, onto the Commission for Africa. And why my colleague Ian McCartney was discussing these issues with the Chinese Ambassador just last week.
I have already mentioned the significant trade and investment growth between China and Africa. Helping African countries get a fairer deal under the Doha Round of international trade negotiations is a key objective we share and one that is urgent. We all have much to gain from trade liberalisation but developing countries have the most. The surest way for Africa to beat poverty and meet its Millennium Development Goals is through trade, managed in the right way. That is why we will continue to resist protectionist pressures whether from our EU or G8 partners and urge them to open markets to the widest possible extent. I hope that we can count on the same level of commitment from China so that we get a successful outcome to the Doha talks. I also hope that we can work with China to support IMF initiatives on transparency in Africa. Promoting transparency is a key NEPAD objective.
Access to healthcare and education are critical to Africa's development. Without them economic activity and trade of virtually any kind are impossible. The ravages of HIV/AIDS are destroying a whole generation and sending Africa's development backwards. Malaria and tuberculosis are equally devastating. China is building up expertise in combating HIV/ AIDS. By sharing our knowledge and experience I believe that we could make a considerable contribution to wider international efforts to combat the disease in Africa. I hope too that China will contribute to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation.
What is critical for Africa is getting the children into schools close to home. That means building schools, training and paying teachers. Much of the international funding committed last year will be focussed on expanding basic education facilities. I hope that China will share its skills and know-how - particularly in vocational training, an area highlighted by the Commission for Africa as essential for developing entrepreneurial skills and finding a job.
Because so many African economies are heavily dependent on agriculture, any change in the climate or deterioration in the environment is likely to hit African countries hard. Already water is a scarce commodity. Protection of the environment is becoming ever more critical and an area where we must pool our technical knowledge and resources if we are to help Africa's long-term development. We are already working with China through the Gleneagles Dialogue on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development. We hope to launch a bilateral dialogue in the coming months. I would like to see this co-operation at national, EU and international level to help Africa.
I know that China is keen to demonstrate that its relationship with Africa is more than just an economic relationship, important as this is. In this context we welcomed Premier Wen's recent commitment to helping African countries to improve democracy, the rule of law and social justice. But it has to go beyond words. We have to look to working with China to promote positive change in these areas in a number of African countries.
Sudan is one country where China has significant interests and where we could do more to work together. The UK has worked closely with the Government of Sudan, with the African Union and with our partners in the UN Security Council to try to find a lasting solution to the conflict between the North and the South and in the Darfur region. Representatives of all Security Council members, including China, recently visited the region to get a clearer picture of the impact of the conflict on the region as a whole as well as the full extent of the humanitarian catastrophe.
In this context it is important for all the members of the Security Council to be prepared to take tough measures as necessary to ensure the Government of Sudan meets its international commitments. Securing support for a UN peacekeeping deployment to Darfur is absolutely vital to that process.
Zimbabwe is another country where China has extensive economic interests. Zimbabwe is rich in natural resources and has the potential to be a major producer and supplier of minerals and agricultural commodities. But the policies of the Zimbabwean Government are destroying the economic base of the country and ruining people's lives. Both bilaterally, through the African Union, the EU and UN we have urged Mugabe to change direction. And we have made it clear that should he do so the UK and the EU will provide significant support to the rebuilding of Zimbabwe. But I hope and believe it is possible to work with the Chinese to get Mugabe's government to change direction. A stable, free and prosperous Zimbabwe will allow Zimbabwe and its people to flourish and trade and growth to expand across the whole of southern Africa. That is firmly in our mutual interest and an objective we share to promote greater regional co-operation. So again I hope that China will work with us and use its own connections to encourage Mugabe to adopt the right policies.
I am encouraged too by China's commitment to combating small arms smuggling and to supporting peacekeeping operations and by China's belief, which we share, that Africa should have a greater say in UN affairs. These are all areas where we share common ground and on which we can work together. But all of this, I say with great respect, must go beyond words.
Under our Presidency last year the EU launched its first Africa strategy which seeks to support Africa's own efforts to secure long-term peace and sustainable development, including a substantial increase in aid. Likewise, under our Presidency, the EU launched a strategic political dialogue with China on a wide range of issues including co-operation in the fields of science and technology. I hope that we will be able to use this forum to discuss our respective and common objectives in support of Africa's development.
China has emerged as a leading international member of the international community. As the world's fourth largest economy, now surpassing the UK, what happens in China will have an impact across the globe and its responsibilities grow with it by the day. Despite China's rapid growth about 750 million people still live in rural areas earning very little. One hundred and thirty-five million Chinese, that is 10.5% of the population, live on less than one dollar a day. If China keeps up its present dizzying growth rate those figures are likely to fall rapidly. That in itself puts great pressure on resources.
China will have a growing need Africa's resources as much as Africa will need China's markets for their mutual growth. The challenge is how to manage that growth in a sustainable way. Managed successfully we all benefit. Managed poorly we all suffer. If we are to achieve our shared objective of making Africa a driving force in the world economy and thus helping millions of Africans have a better life, it in our mutual interest and to our mutual benefit that we work together locally and globally to that end. The UK stands ready to work with the Chinese emerging superpower in that objective.
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