LUSAKA — The cooperation between China and African countries has been gradually transformed and upgraded, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Jan 9.

Under the new ideas put forward at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation’s summit in Johannesburg, the China-Africa win-win cooperation has shown “three new changes,” Wang said during a meeting with his Zambian counterpart Harry Kalaba.

Wang explained that the first change is a transformation from government-led cooperation to the market oriented one, and the second is an upgrade from general commodity trade to capacity cooperation and processing trade.

He added that the last one is a shift from ordinary project contracting to the expansion of investment, construction and operation.

Despite a gloomy world economy and sluggish growth of global trade, the China-Africa capacity cooperation and the alignment of their industrial policies are growing robust, Wang said.

The cooperation has witnessed a fast growth, with many Chinese enterprises coming to Africa to invest and establish plants, noted Wang.

He said that from the December 2015 Johannesburg summit to July, 2016, the agreements signed in various fields between China and Africa have been valued at over $50 billion.

The “three new changes” indicate that the China-Africa cooperation has reached a new level, which features transformation, upgrade and new opportunities of mutual benefit, the minister said.

Zambia is one of the main players and beneficiary of the “three new changes,” said Wang.

2017 marks a key year to implement the outcome of the Johannesburg summit, he stressed.

Despite an unpredictable international situation and world economy, China will keep its words and comprehensively implement the summit’s outcome so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples of Africa and China at an early date, Wang said.