Chinese President, Xi Jinping, has finalised plans to meet with the African heads of state on the sidelines of the BRICS summit coming up next week. It is reported that the aim of the meeting is to advance the China-Africa cooperation in the new generation, according to China’s ambassador to South Africa on Friday, August 18.
The meeting will hold on Thursday, the last day of the three-day summit. The BRICS bloc consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
President Xi will be pay a short state visit to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Tuesday and afterwards, travel to Johannesburg for the BRICS summit, to mark his fifth trip to South Africa since he came into power in 2013.
Xi and African leaders will draw up a plan to enable maximum cooperation in creating jobs to improve livelihoods in Africa.
It is yet unclear how many heads of state will attend the August 22-24 BRICS summit, but South African have disclosed that at least over 70 persons had been invited.
Between the years 2000 and 2020, Chinese lenders, (majorly state-owned banks) had agreed to lend $160 billion to African countries. Additionally, Chinese companies have also invested heavily on mining in the continent.
