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CAFIU Vice-President Ai Ping Attends the 4th Meeting of China-Africa Think Tanks Forum


Liu Kaiyang At the invitation of Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection of South Africa, CAFIU Vice-President Ai Ping attended the 4th Meeting of China-Africa Think Tanks Forum (CATTF IV) cosponsored by South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation and China’s Zhejiang Normal University held in Pretoria, South Africa from September 9th to 10th, 2015. CAFIU Deputy Secretary-General Liu Kaiyang also attended CATTF IV. Themed at “New Trends of Africa’s Development towards ‘African Union Agenda 2063’”, CATTF IV was focused on 4 subtopics including “New Trends in Post-2015 Development and African Relations with the World”, “Significance of Africa’s 2063 Vision and Its Implementation”, “Sino-African Productivity Cooperation & Construction of High Speed Railway, Road and Regional Airway along with Infrastructural Industrialization” and “A Dialogue between Ubuntu and Confucianism: African and Chinese Learn from Each Other’s Cultural Heritage”. Nearly 100 experts, scholars and entrepreneurs from renowned think tanks, universities, governments and enterprises of China, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya attended CATTF IV. Ai Ping delivered a keynote speech titled “A Chinese’ Understanding of Africa and Some Personal Opinions” at the first plenary session. He put forward constructive suggestion on strengthening China-Africa relations and seeking for a development road that is suitable for our respective countries according to his working experience with African countries for many years, which was commended by the participants of CATTF IV. Ai Ping also had extensive contacts with South African officials, non-governmental personages and participants of CATTF IV from African countries and exchanged views with them on deepening China-Africa relations and promoting China-Africa people-to-people and cultural exchanges. China-Africa Think Tanks Forum was established by Zhejiang Normal University in 2011, with the purpose of “people leading, government participation, frank dialogue, building consensus”, aiming at building a platform of exchange and dialogue for Chinese and African think tanks, which has been integrated into the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) framework. As a warming-up activity of the FOCAC summit meeting, CATTF IV has aroused wide attention among the Chinese and African peoples and has been positively reported by the Chinese and African mainstream media.