Ｂｕｒｋｉｎａｎ　Ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ　ｉｎ　Ｃｈｉｎａ

Ｔａｎｇ　Ｒｕｉｍｉｎ

Invited by the CPAFFC, a delegation of the Forum of Sino-Burkinan Friendship headed by its honorary president Zephirin Diabre visited Guangzhou, Xian and Beijing from October 15 to 21, 2007.Though diplomatic relations between China and Burkina Faso suspended in 1994, contacts between the two peoples have never stopped. The delegation attended the 102nd Session of the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and visited the Xian National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone. In Beijing, it called on the China-Africa Business Council, the Export-Import Bank of China, the Ministry of Land and Resources, CNOOC International Limited, China Nuclear International Uranium Corporation, Beijing Holley-Cotec Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., China-Africa Development Fund and China Construction Bank.

Since its founding in 2004, the Forum of Sino-Burkinan Friendship has attracted many personages from the economic, trade and banking circles to join in. They all wish to promote the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries through economic and trade contacts. It is their firm conviction that as Chinas influence in the world grows and its economic size increases, no one can succeed in his attempt to prevent the normalization of relations between Burkina Faso and China.

The delegation made a call on the Export-Import Bank of China to discuss matters concerning the development of bilateral trade and economic relations. The Bank suggested that the mineral resources of Burkina Faso be converted into cash liquidity to construct infrastructure facilities, for which China can provide funds. Chinas economic cooperation mode suits the development in Africa. The delegation was told that as Chinas telecommunications sector has achieved an annual growth rate of 60 percent overseas and that both Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Corp. have their offices in Burkina Faso, if bilateral diplomatic relations are restored, Burkina Faso will enjoy buyers credit from the Export-Import Bank of China, which will have great impact on its economic development. Members of the delegation expressed regret that they are not entitled to get preferential loan and buyers credit because there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries. Members of the delegation Alain Coefe, former commerce minister and the present president of Burkina Fasos Administration Council of the Mansion of Enterprise, and Bernard Zangre, deputy editor-in-chief of Observer, a daily newspaper with the largest circulation in Burkina Faso, said that they would publish reports on what they had seen and heard in China in newspapers and appeal to the government to resume diplomatic relations with China at an early date.

The delegation also paid a visit to the China-Africa Business Council. The Council was set up in the wake of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. It has already organized Chinese entrepreneurs to go to Togo, Zambia and Tanzania to hold commodity exhibitions and sales and achieved good results. The Burkinan friends said that they were capable of hosting delegations from relevant Chinese departments to come to their country to invite investment, mount exhibitions and hold economic and trade forums. They hoped to carry out nongovernmental economic and trade exchanges to promote governmental ties. They believed that when diplomatic relations between the two countries resumed, bilateral trade and economic exchanges would be elevated to a higher level and cooperation would expand.

The Burkinan friends expressed the hope that Chinese entrepreneurs would come to Burkina Faso to develop and utilize solar energy. With strong sunshine, the annual average temperature in the country is 35 degrees centigrade, the highest 45 degrees centigrade. They said, Chinas good-quality but cheap construction materials and electronic products are very popular in Burkina Faso. Now, about 70% of daily necessities in the market are from China, but they enter Burkina Faso through entrepot trade. They hoped to realize direct trade through promoting the normalization of diplomatic relations.

Though their stay in China was short, the members of the delegation had a deep impression of Chinas rapid economic development. They believed that China would become a world power in the not too distant future and that the government of Burkina Faso had no reason to refuse to establish friendly and cooperative relations with such a country. They would make continuous efforts to exert influence on the Burkinan government through nongovernmental channels so that the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries would be realized soon.