African Young Voices (AYV Media Empire) in partnership with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Sierra Leone has from Thursday 8 to Friday 9 September 2022 hosted a high-level symposium in Freetown with the themed; “China and Africa: past, present and future”, in Freetown.Speaking at the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone H.E. Hu Zhangliang expounded on the history of China-Africa relations, and highlighted the important achievements both sides have made in the cooperation.
He analyzed the reasons why China and Africa can be such good friends and reliable partners, and wished the two sides would rise above any obstacles and redouble efforts to promote China-Africa friendly cooperation to a new high.
Ambassador Hu expressed profound delight to see the following major consensuses being reached or consolidated at the symposium: First, China-Africa relations are of vital importance to each other and it is the common responsibility of both sides to maintain and promote the sound development of this relationship.
Second, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation is highly complementary and the two sides should seize the opportunity to strengthen cooperation for a higher level of common development.
Third, promoting international fairness and justice is the common will and in the common interests of China and Africa and the two sides should stand for real multilateralism while firmly oppose unilateralism, hegemonism and protectionism or any kind of New Cold War thinking.
Fourth, China-Sierra Leone relationship is the epitome of China-Africa relations. Both China and Sierra Leone will surely contribute more to the consolidation and promotion of China-Africa friendship.
The Ambassador highly appreciated the valuable contributions, insightful discussions and important suggestions the distinguished participants made in the symposium and thanked AYV for successfully organizing this meaningful event.
Other speakers including, Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidi Tunis, the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rahaman Swaray host of dignitaries as well as representatives from different sectors of Sierra Leone graced made similar contributions to the discussion. Also formed part of participants were well-known scholars from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and the People’s Republic of China.
