Ｇｒｅａｔ Ｆｕｔｕｒｅ ｏｆ Ｓｉｎｏ－Ａｆｒｉｃａｎ Ｓｃｉｅｎｔｉｆｉｃ ａｎｄ Ｔｅｃｈｎｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌ Ｃｏｏｐｅｒａｔｉｏｎ

Scientific and technological cooperation is an important part of all-round cooperation between China and African countries. Since the People’s Republic of China began to establish diplomatic relations with African countries 50 years ago， Sino-African friendly cooperation has expanded from the fields of politics and economy to culture， education，science， technology and public health. Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation has developed to the comprehensive， multi-layer and all-directional cooperation in various spheres and forms from the mono-cooperation between governments. Especially， the cooperation by way of drawing on each other’s experience in development， strengthening capacity building and complementing each other’s weakness with advantages has been gradually increasing its proportion in the Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation， showing great potential and broad prospects of the cooperation. Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation， China has further consolidated and deepened her traditional friendly relations with the African countries， and along with it Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation has also experienced considerable development.

Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation started from the early days of the founding of the PRC. From then on to 1978 when China began to implement the policy of reform and opening up， Sino-African cooperation focused mainly on the political field with the purpose of supporting African countries in their struggle for national independence and liberation and against racism. During that period there was strictly speaking no scientific and technological cooperation between the two sides， but China’s vigorous political support and unconditional economic aid to African countries. Since China started reform and opening up towards the end of the 20th century， with China’s booming economy and African countries’ economic restructuring， Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation has gradually shown characteristics of mutual benefit. At the end of 1982， China put forward four principles for its economic and technological cooperation with African countries， i.e. “equality and mutual benefit， emphasis on practical results， diversity in form and content and pursuit of common development”. Since then， Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation has expanded to the fields of agriculture， forestry， energy， machinery， environmental protection， telecommunication， satellite， etc. What is gratifying is that the first Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in October 2000 has become the landmark of strengthening scientific and technological cooperation between China and African countries. In the past 6 years， within the framework of the Forum， China has relieved 156 mature debts owed by 31 African countries， totaling 10.5 billion RMB yuan， granted duty-free treatment to 190 kinds of goods from 29 least developed African countries， trained 10，000 personnel of various professions and granted 16 African countries Approved Destination Status for out-bound Chinese tourists and dispatched young volunteers to Africa. All this has provided a greater stage for Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation.

In recent years， with the establishment of the new type Sino-African strategic partnership， bilateral economic and trade exchanges have been unprecedentedly active. Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation has shown a good momentum of development. China commands ripe technology and has complete sets of equipment in the field of applied technologies such as water cleaning technology， methane utilization， etc.. Popularization of these technologies in Africa is directly related to the people’s livelihood there. China’s Spark Programme technologies with the characteristics of being economical， practical and easy to master are also applicable to many African rural areas. In addition， China and African countries can cooperate not only in the areas of chemical fertilizer， agricultural chemical， forage， prevention and cure of tropical crops’ diseases and insect pests， farm produce processing， edible mushroom cultivation， energy technical personnel training， forage processing， technical training and demonstration of cultivation of crops， aquaculture， agricultural machinery， etc.， but also in the agricultural hi-tech fields such as agricultural information technology， bio-agricultural technology， etc..

At the Conference on Financing for Development at the UN Summit in September 2005， President Hu Jintao put-forward five measures to strengthen China’s cooperation with developing countries. He said that China would increase its aid to developing countries especially African countries in the next 3 years including providing medicine especially effective to prevent and cure malaria and other medicines， helping them build and improve medical facilities， training medical personnel， etc.

Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation is a long-term systematic programme. When developing and strengthening this cooperation， we need to take into account both sides’ conditions and development needs as well as the sustainable development of China， Africa and the world. Under the current new situation， strengthening Sino-African scientific and technological cooperation can not only consolidate and boost the traditional Sino-African friendly relations， but also push forward the comprehensive development of the new type Sino-African strategic partnership.

The author is associate research fellow with the China National Research Centre for Science and Technology Development.