Bright prospects for China-Africa digital cooperation
Core reading
The digital economy is becoming a new field and direction for China-Africa cooperation and win-win cooperation.
Chinese companies actively provide technical and experience support such as e-commerce and financial technology to African countries. African countries are also eager to accelerate digital transformation and inject new impetus into economic recovery and development.
The Chinese side announced a few days ago to jointly develop and implement the "China-Africa Digital Innovation Partnership Program" with Africa, and put forward 6 suggestions in this regard-strengthening digital infrastructure, developing digital economy, carrying out digital education, enhancing digital inclusion, co-creating digital security, building Cooperation Platform.
China and Africa will jointly design practical cooperation measures in the digital field in the next three years, and incorporate them into the outcome document of the new session of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, to promote China-Africa digital cooperation to a new level.
Work together to create a "digital Africa" and enhance development capabilities
The first overseas center of China's Beidou satellite navigation system-the China-Arab Beidou Center is located in Tunisia.
Here, our reporter experienced an unmanned tractor: the agricultural tractor equipped with the Beidou system moved forward steadily and successfully completed obstacles, U-turns, and turns.
Center engineer Nada said: "The high-quality satellite navigation services provided by Beidou have brought tangible benefits to African people in the fields of precision agriculture, transportation, disaster reduction, and public safety."
Currently, solutions based on the Beidou system have been applied in many countries in Africa.
In recent years, Chinese experts have also gone to Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria and other countries to carry out multiple rounds of Beidou satellite navigation technology and application training.
Digital innovation cooperation is an emerging field of China-Africa practical cooperation. The "China-Africa Cooperation Forum-Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021)" proposes that China and Africa will "share information and communication development experience, jointly seize opportunities for digital economy development, and encourage enterprises Develop cooperation in the fields of information and communication infrastructure, the Internet, and the digital economy."
Up to now, Chinese and South African companies have cooperated to build Africa’s first 5G independent commercial network. The Senegal National Data Center, which China provides financing and technical support, has been officially opened. The e-commerce platform built by Chinese companies has brought African products closer to Chinese consumers. , Rich and diverse training programs are delivering digital talents to Africa... China and Africa continue to deepen digital cooperation to help Africa seize the opportunity of the information revolution and jointly create a "digital Africa".
"China has always been a good friend, good partner, and good brother of African countries, and sincerely cooperates with African countries in various fields such as infrastructure construction, agriculture, education, medical care, and anti-epidemic, extending a helping hand to African friends." Cairo University, Egypt Samiha Faz, professor of economics, said that the “Africa-China Digital Innovation Partnership Program” is pragmatic and comprehensive, covering multiple aspects such as digital infrastructure, digital economy, and digital education. Contributing to the digital divide on the African continent".
"The world of the future is a digital world." said Enze, an ICT expert at the Digital Bridge Institute of Nigeria. Strategic significance, “We look forward to China’s digital innovation solutions to help Africa keep up with the world’s development and achieve leapfrog development.”
Promote the sharing of technology dividends and improve people’s lives
Currently, African countries are working hard to accelerate the pace of digital development.
The African Union put forward the "African Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030", and regional countries have introduced relevant supporting policies.
The African Continental Free Trade Area was officially launched on January 1 this year, and the digital economy was included in the second phase of negotiations.
African public opinion generally believes that Africa-China digital cooperation meets the needs of Africa's economic and social development, promotes the sharing of technological dividends, and effectively brings benefits to the African people.
"Many African countries take digital transformation as their development direction. Innovation in the field of digital technology will help us overcome poverty and improve people's livelihood." Faz said that finding competent partners in digital infrastructure, digital talents and digital economy is crucial. important.
"China leads the world in the development of the digital economy and is the best partner for African countries to achieve the goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Africa-China digital cooperation has broad opportunities."
In Tanzania, Chinese companies continue to promote the integration of digital technologies between the two sides through digital capability training, digital infrastructure, and legal policy services; in Rwanda, China Agricultural University takes the lead in launching the "smart fishery" industry-university-research cooperation demonstration program and launches the China-Rwanda digital fishery demonstration The project promotes friendly cooperation in the field of digital agriculture between the two countries; in Egypt, China's Huawei has provided training for more than 5,000 Egyptian ICT professionals through the "Huawei ICT Academy" project, the "Future Seeds" project, and the ICT skills competition. During the prevention and control period, China actively shared technical experience, and big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc. played an important role in Africa's anti-epidemic and economic recovery...
Adkunle Osidip, an information technology expert at the African Research Institute of Zhejiang Normal University, said that the "Africa-China Digital Innovation Partnership Program" will further promote Chinese companies and African partners to participate in digital infrastructure projects, share the latest achievements in digital technology, and promote African countries. Information networks are interconnected.
"African countries should seize this precious opportunity to promote the transformation and implementation of results to benefit the vast majority of African people."
The Tanzanian mainstream media "Citizen" commented that the "African-China Digital Innovation Partnership Program" once again demonstrated that China has the ability and willingness to deepen digital cooperation with Tanzania and other African countries, and help African countries create jobs, develop their economies, and improve people's living standards. Tanzania will benefit from this plan.
Build an equal partnership to achieve mutual benefit and win-win
At the beginning of September, the 2021 China-Africa Cooperation Forum Africa Product E-commerce Promotion Season was officially launched. The promotion activities will last for 3 months to build a new platform for Sino-African cross-border e-commerce cooperation.
In addition, activities such as the "African Young Scientists Innovative China Tour", the construction of a China-Africa innovation cooperation center, and the strengthening of distance education cooperation have all become important content of China-Africa exchanges and cooperation in the digital field.
China actively builds cooperation platforms to promote digital progress through exchanges.
The "China-Africa Digital Innovation Partnership Program" includes both short-term project cooperation and medium- and long-term cooperation.
Enze said that China has always maintained high efficiency and high transparency in its cooperation with Africa, helping African countries to enhance their development capabilities.
"Africa-China digital cooperation embodies mutual benefit and win-win results, and is extremely attractive to African countries. I believe that with the help of China, Africa will accelerate the pace of digital transformation."
Global digital governance rules should be discussed and formulated jointly by all countries.
"Digital security is a common challenge facing the world, and it is also an indispensable part of Africa-China digital cooperation." said Jabala, a professor of economics and financial law at Cairo University in Egypt, when some countries politicized data security issues and seriously interfered with global digital cooperation. When working hard with development, the "Africa-China Digital Innovation Partnership Program" emphasizes Africa-China solidarity and cooperation to jointly create an open, fair, and non-discriminatory digital development environment.
Morocco’s Challenger Weekly reported that Africa-China digital cooperation promotes the application and development of ICT in Africa.
The two parties jointly formulated and implemented the "Africa-China Digital Innovation Partnership Program", which aims to build a truly equal partnership. The joint development of the two parties will inject more vitality into the progress of international digital technology.
(Beijing, Cairo, Abuja, Johannesburg, September 26)
"People's Daily" (September 27, 2021 16 edition)