BEIJING, CHINA: Whilst a senior African diplomat has lauded the long standing support for liberation movements by the Chinese government when many African countries were fighting against western imperialism at the 3rd Forum on China--Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Seminar on China Africa NGO's last week, he suggested that China could also learn from Africa.

"The experience of the Non Governmental Organisations has been longer in Kenya than perhaps, in Modern day China. The NGO's in Kenya have played complimentary role in the development of Kenya. Government could only do so much, but NGO's too could contribute.  Thus while many NGO's have been involved in such sectors such as provision of clean water, health, disaster relief as well as alleviating the effects of deadly diseases. They have relied on Western assistance, a factor that has sometimes slowed their progress," said Julius Ole Sunkuli, Ambassador of Kenya to China.

He observed, "At the same time China should avoid our own mistakes. The NGO's in Kenya have at times adopted the character of those who run them and have deliberately departed from their stated goals and mission. It's my hope that these experiences have been shared candidly." Most African countries established Embassies in Beijing, China at a time when some parts of the world especially in the West were doubtful and ambivalent. They also endorsed the one China policy.

In the 1960's when African countries were coming out of colonialism and gaining independence, China was always taking a leading role in giving recognition to the new states. The political support has also translated into economic co-operation with trade increasing spectacularly.

According to Chinese officials the trade volume between Africa and China have increased from US$10 billion in 2000 up to US$106.8 billion in 2008(more than 10 times), with an annual growth rate of between 30-35% over the last decade.

Doctor Machete, President of the Botswana-China Friendship Association, said "Understanding and co-operation between the two peoples is important because of increased commerce and interaction with China. A lot of Batswana are now doing business directly with Chinese merchants already. There is also a strong Chinese business presence in Botswana with people needing to appreciate and understand Botswana customs, values and laws."

He said, "We are currently sponsoring a police officer to study Chinese at the Confucius institute at the University of Botswana to help eliminate language barriers."

China is allegedly trying to strengthen people to people relationships in a renewed bid to further nurture  exchanges and co-operation, improve good will, enhance enrichment of development experiences and provide intellectual support for formulating better co-operation between developing partners.

Lin Yin, Director General, Asian-African Affairs Department, said "I think importance of this meeting is that people must know that government relationship is important but people to people relationship must be strengthened especially NGO's. There are NGO's in China that want to strengthen their relationships with Africa. For instance, representatives from China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and Africa Food Fund who want to focus efforts on Africa. They have established a fund specializing in carrying out corporate social responsibility programmes in Africa such as conducting cataract operations in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe performed by the best eye surgeons in China. They have also donated school materials to school kids in Cameroon (US$15,000) and Namibia(US$15,000)."

She said, "We will be conducting more cataract operations in Angola and Mozambique. It is already on our agenda and we are just working on the timeframe. We are consulting with our business donors to continue making contributions for learning materials for poor kids in Africa."