Ｓｔｒｅｎｇｔｈｅｎｉｎｇ Ｎｅｗ Ｓｔｒａｔｅｇｉｃ Ｐａｒｔｎｅｒｓｈｉｐ Ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ Ａｆｒｉｃａ ａｎｄ Ｃｈｉｎａ

Nowadays we witness an increasingly globalized and a dramatically changing world， where globalization brings opportunities as well as serious challenges. On one hand， globalization have paved the way for new opportunities in trade， technological advancement and the increase of investments. On the other hand， it imposed mounting challenges on developing countries， and created the risk of marginalization with many negative consequences in entailed political， economic， and cultural fields. As a result， we are looking forward to actively pursuing a common view and collective actions to ensure the equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization.

To deal with this reality， Africa and China should bolster their solidarity and rely on their tremendous and diversified resources in order to effectively confront this challenge. Together they can gain stronger leverage in the global arena.

Cooperation between Africa and China would be achieved through the establishment of new strategic partnership between them， to tackle common problems and overcome difficulties. The next Sino-African summit will be an opportunity to agree upon ways and means to establish this new Strategic Partnership while we commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Sino-African diplomatic relations.

Egypt as an advocate of South-South cooperation and a founding member of the Afro-Asian Movement， the Non-Alignment Movement， the Organization of the African Unity， the African Union， the NEPAD， the Sino–African Cooperation Forum， has initiated such mechanisms of cooperation long time ago. The International Centre for Agriculture in Cairo provided thousands of training opportunities to African and Chinese in different areas such as agriculture， fisheries， water management， and irrigation. The Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa has been offering， since its creation in 1980， extensive technical cooperation in many areas of priority with sister countries in Africa by providing expertise in fields of health， education， agriculture， irrigation， and security as well as training opportunities in these fields.

Egypt believes that there are some key elements that need to be addressed to ensure the success of New Strategic Partnership， such as:

#61548;Strengthening the role of Regional Economic Communities within the African Union and between Africa and China.

#61548;Identifying the fields of priority cooperation into three main areas， political， economic， social cultural， and encouraging the role of the private sector as it represents the backbone of economic growth.

#61548;Enhancing the role of the Sino-African Forum for businessmen and accelerating the steps of establishment of the federation of Sino-African Chambers of Commerce as a ways to remove the barriers which hinder the flow of trade and investments， as well as exchanging information about the true capabilities and opportunities of the two sides.

#61548;Forming a data-base and a network among the specialized research institutes and centres of excellence.

#61548;Adopting a rational way of thinking for elaborating the New Strategic Partnership to draw applicable programmes dealing with the differences in growth rates and taking into account the social and cultural characteristics of each side， and developing what have been already achieved through the different and various forums and common initiatives.

Egypt would express its willingness to work together with China within the Sino-African Cooperation Forum to reach successful results that should contribute to the political， economic， social cultural development of the two sides， as well as strengthening the New Strategic Partnership between Africa and China.

The author is Egyptian ambassador to China.