President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech to strong applause at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing on Monday.
Here is a collection of comments on the speech by guests attending the summit.
"President Xi is very clear in terms of China's plan for China as well as his outlook on collaboration with Africa."
"He was able to clearly glean the collaborative areas that would basically lay the foundation for the relationship. The long-term experience of China for the last 40 years, it's quite a lot of benefits for development of Africa. "
--- Martin Kaali Shipanga, executive chairman of Shipanga Medical based in Namibia
"I am very much impressed and this was very useful and very inspiring... especially the participation of the youth. Another thing that was emphasized heavily was the participation of women."
--- Martha Namundjembo-Tilahun, group chairperson of United Africa Group
Vilola Santo Xavier, a journalist from Angola, said he was in Beijing with his countrie's president in 2008 for Olympics and has visited China several times since then. He was taken back at the development and change of China in the past decade and the growth of the China-Africa relationships.
"I wowed at Chinese leaders’ ability to manage such a big country and a large population," he said. "There is a lot we can learn from China and also a lot that can be shared between us."
--- Vilola Santo Xavier, a journalist from Angola
Mussavele Gabriel Felimao from Mozambique said that President Xi Jinping really is committed to seeing a new Africa.
He said: "After the speech, President Xi Jinping showed his commitment to Africa and promised around $60 billion for the next three years to build Africa. So we really see that China and Africa are together." He thought China and Africa will work together to build a new life for Chinese people and also for African people.
--- Mussavele Gabriel Felimao, a journalist from Mozambique
Selamawit Kassa from Ethiopia said the youth cooperation President Xi Jinping has talked about is very impressive.
"The unemployment rate is very high in many African countries and there are lots of youth in Africa so focusing on society," she said. It is very important to see the change we want to see in Africa that more and more youth can find jobs, she added.
"Chinese government provides so many opportunities to African students to study in China, which can help change themselves," she said. "African people also welcome Chinese companies to invest in Africa, because they create jobs."
--- Selamawit Kassa, a journalist from Ethiopia
Guan Qing, chairman of China State Construction Engineering Corporation, said that China and African countries have always been in the community with a shared future.
"China's construction projects can be seen in 51 countries across Africa. A large number of major projects of such kind have helped realize the dreams of generations of local people on the continent, which accelerates the modernization of Africa and cements China-Africa friendship," Guan said.
--- Guan Qing, chairman of China State Construction Engineering Corporation
"President Xi's speech is exciting to African countries. China views China-Africa cooperation as important as strategic level and that is what African countries highly expect," said Hodan Osman Abdi, a full-time researcher and lecturer with the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University, adding the proposals China initiated to strengthen China-Africa cooperation is programmatic and beneficial to African people.
"I am impressed that President Xi says it is for the peoples of China and Africa to judge the performance of China-Africa cooperation. No one could deny the remarkable achievements made in China-Africa cooperation, not with their assumption or imagination."
--- Hodan Osman Abdi, Advisor of Somali President, Founder and Executive Director at Center for East African Studies at Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University
"President Xi's speech [really confirmed] the relationship between China and Africa to continue our cooperation," said Aboubaker Omar Hadi, Chairman, Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority, adding he was impressed by China's friendly cooperation with African in infrastructure construction.
--- Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman, Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority
"We, the diplomatic staff in African affairs, can learn a lot from President Xi's outlook in building a community of shared future between China and Africa."
---He Yanjun, Chinese ambassador to Comoros
"I think the feedback of President Xi's speech from our President Mokgweetsi Masisi is very positive. He shares the same vision as President Xi," said Motsamai Mmoniemang, a journalist from Botswana News Agency. "Xi's speech is very inspiring to African countries. The vision Xi wants to share with Africa can help many African countries," she said, adding what impressed her most is Xi's vision of developing Africa and giving every country an opportunity.
--- Motsamai Mmoniemang, a journalist from Botswana News Agency
"President Xi made a very remarkable, very influential speech. He made some discourses that are very vital to Sino-African cooperation. No country can move on alone. We need China and China needs Africa," said Jator Njechu Christopher, a journalist from Cameroon Tribune, adding the cultural and people-people exchange Xi has committed also impressed him.
--- Jator Njechu Christopher, a journalist from Cameroon Tribune
Deng Yanting, a researcher of African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said President Xi's speech highlights the rich connotation of the community of a shared future between China and Africa, which meshes well with the Belt and Road Initiative, African Union Agenda 2063 and United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The speech is a manifestation of the Chinese Dream and the African Dream, he said.
--- Deng Yanting, a researcher of African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
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