China's Commerce Minister Chen Deming on the results of his visit to Africa and China-Africa relations

Minister Chen Deming:The purpose of our trip is primarily based on last year's11We came to Africa to study and implement the eight new initiatives on China-Africa economic assistance set by Premier Wen at the Sharm el-Sheikh Conference in Egypt in February. The three countries we visited during this trip, namely Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania, are all on the east coast of Africa, and we have made some understanding of the current economic situation and the approximate needs of the future development of these three countries, and held talks with the heads of state, heads of government, and the relevant ministers of these countries, and also visited some of the projects they are constructing and some of the projects that are already in a position to be constructed, and we have made some preliminary inspections of the projects with proposed facilities. At the same time, we also made some preliminary visits to the proposed projects, and the purpose of our trip has basically been achieved.

The main purpose of our visit, study tour and investigation in Africa is to think about how to reflect our country's new eight initiatives to increase the self-development capacity of African countries and people, and at the same time, to pay special attention to livelihood programs, such as agriculture, housing and environmental protection issues, and so on.

Journalist:In last week's interview with Minister Yang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Yang said that this is the second consecutive decade that China's foreign ministers have visited Africa first at the beginning of the new year to show the importance China attaches to Africa, and Minister Chen, you are also visiting Africa first at the beginning of the new year this year, what do you think about this?

Minister Chen Deming:Since I took office as Minister of Commerce, the first stop at the beginning of each new year has been Africa, which is firstly because we can arrange our work during this period of time so that I can lead a delegation to make a visit alone, and secondly, because Africa is a very important strategic partner of ours in the whole foreign affairs strategy, and in the layout of the pattern of the general situation of economic development. African people's life is still relatively hard, it is the African countries united to carry us into the United Nations, and now we have developed, Africa has also developed, but in contrast there are still more than 30 least developed countries in Africa, especially under the influence of the financial crisis, they encounter some difficulties are often greater than developed countries, so our first stop to choose Africa also highlights the importance of our Chinese economic and foreign policy to Africa, and highlights the importance of our party and country's economic development. Therefore, the choice of Africa as our first stop also highlights the importance of China's economic and foreign policy to Africa, as well as the importance of the foreign aid policy of the Party and the State to Africa.

Journalist:While China-Africa trade relations are growing, they are also facing the problem of localized deficits, what are your comments and suggestions on this? In terms of trade and investment cooperation with Africa, what are the Minister's suggestions and expectations for Chinese enterprises?

Minister Chen Deming:Trade with Africa is generally developing, in terms of bilateral trade, our exports to Africa and Africa's exports to China are both increasing, but due to the different stages of economic development, product structure and competitiveness of different, in general, China is in a surplus position, Africa is still slightly in the deficit position. Specifically analyzed, those countries that have resources, their trade with China is in a large surplus position, while those countries that do not have resources mainly rely on agricultural products, agricultural products, the depth of processing is not enough, their trade with us is in a deficit position, but over the past few years, we have been doing a lot of work to increase imports of agricultural products in these countries, and increase the help to these countries. Therefore, even though we encountered a serious financial crisis last year, their exports to China not only did not decrease, but also had a significant increase of more than several dozen percent in good performance, which is based on a few things we have done: first, we encourage their manufacturers to exhibit and sell, promote their products, improve their quality and value-added, which the Chinese government has also given a certain degree of support; secondly, we further reduced or waived import tariffs for the least developed countries to China; secondly, we further reduced or waived import tariffs for the least developed countries to China, which is a very important part of the Chinese economy. Secondly, we have further reduced or waived the import tariffs of the least developed countries to China, and last year we reduced or waived the tariffs of the least developed countries to China.442species, and this year we expanded that species tenfold to the4700Thirdly, we encourage our enterprises to invest in Africa, to set up factories there, to increase employment in Africa, and at the same time to export their products to other parts of the world.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a few words to enterprises that have the strength to invest in Africa. The Chinese Government hopes that these enterprises will go to Africa for development and promote the friendship between China and Africa through practical economic behaviors, and I hope that they will respect the laws of the market economy and abide by the laws of the countries in which they are located in Africa, and that they will continue to make their enterprises bigger and stronger.

Journalist:Last question: Climate change has become a current global challenge. How will China's Ministry of Commerce participate and play a greater role in strengthening China-Africa cooperation to jointly address the global challenge of climate change?

Minister Chen Deming:International climate change has indeed become a hot issue globally this year. At the Copenhagen Conference in Denmark, which concluded at the end of last year, China, together with the basic countries and other Western countries, basically reached a consensus and issued a declaration. This year's Climate Change Conference in Mexico will also formulate concrete and even binding action plans on this basis. In this process, China will stand firmly on the side of the interests of developing countries, including the vast number of African countries. We believe that climate change is ultimately a development issue and that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities should be applied. China itself is a developing country. Our national development interests should also be protected. The most important thing for the Ministry of Commerce to do in this work is to insist on three points: First, to support the adjustment of our import and export structure, and to develop more towards the structure of low-carbon and low-consumption products; second, to further activate the consumption in the domestic market, especially to activate the consumption of some products of the low-carbon economy, and to promote the structural adjustment of the green economy; third, to resolutely oppose the use of the so-called green economy to create new products under the guise of the green economy in the process of the international anti-trade friction and anti-dumping. economy to create new barriers to trade friction under the guise of the so-called green economy."green barrier"This is a point that we have to strongly oppose. For example, the so-called"carbon tariff"And so on. This is inconsistent with the economic recovery and with theWTO (World Trade Organization)The rules are incompatible with the rules of the United Nations and contrary to the prosperity of global trade.