Category - FOCAC

Policy Brief: Aligning China’s 15th Five-Year Plan with Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 – A Think-Tank Agenda for Action: From Dialogue to Implementation

The year 2025 marks a defining moment in the enduring relationship between China and Zimbabwe, as the two nations celebrated 45 years of diplomatic ties and elevated their partnership to new strategic heights. The visit of His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa to China in September 2024 and September 2025 reaffirmed this deepening bond, culminating in a series of high-level engagements that strengthened the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation and underscored the shared commitment to build an all-weather community with a shared future. Against this backdrop, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Zimbabwe and the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) co-hosted the China–Zimbabwe Dialogue: Aligning China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) with Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 on 20 November 2025. The Dialogue was part of the broader implementation framework emerging from President Mnangagwa’s visit and the outcomes of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It sought to identify actionable synergies between Zimbabwe’s forthcoming National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) and China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, both of which emphasise sustainable, innovation-led, and people-centred development. This event was not only a think-tank initiative but a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together senior government officials, parliamentarians, diplomats, academics, business leaders, and the media. It reflected the growing consensus across both countries that sustained cooperation, grounded in shared priorities and mutual respect, is essential to achieving Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 and China’s development goals under its new five-year plan. DOWNLOAD PDF

China Zimbabwe Dialogue Report

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Zimbabwe, in conjunction with the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) held a half-day seminar on 20 November 2025 with the objective of bringing together stakeholders to discuss and explore how the two countries can align their development plans. The theme of this seminar under the CHINA-ZIMBABWE DIALOGUE was “Aligning China’s 15th Five Year Plan with Zimbabwe Vision 2030”. The seminar was a platform for dialogue, mutual learning, and the identification of synergies between national development plans and strategies such as the National Development Strategy 2026-2030 (NDS 2) for achieving Vision 2030. The dialogue follows the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (20-23 October 2025), and the 22nd National People’s Conference of the ZANU-PF Party (13-18 October 2025), and was attended by a wide range of stakeholders including parliamentarians, trade unions, think tanks, academics and the media, as well as the Government of Zimbabwe, the ZANU-PF Party, and the PRC Embassy in Zimbabwe. DOWNLOAD PDF

FOCAC 2024 presents opportunities for expanding China-Africa cooperation

by Munetsi Madakufamba As Beijing prepares to host the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), I reflect on issues of possible interest to the Chinese investor with focus on Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular. I discuss how Zimbabwe and the continent of Africa can leverage on opportunities presented by the dual planks of FOCAC and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Zimbabwe is a country with enormous potential that has been suppressed by over 20 years of Western sanctions but is now rising as a strategic player in the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). Zimbabwe has just become the chair of SADC for the next year. President E.D. Mnangagwa is on a state visit to China and will attend the FOCAC Summit in early September with other African leaders.

FOCAC 2024 more than just diplomacy: Africa’s modernisation top on the agenda

by Munetsi Madakufamba As Beijing hosts the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), I continue to share my insights, from a southern African perspective, on the great diplomacy and intellectual project of our time. In this second in a series of articles on FOCAC 2024, I look at the significance of the China Africa cooperation framework, what it has achieved, and how Africa can leverage synergies for its development agenda.

Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021)

An action plan designed to guide implementation of FOCAC activities from 2019-2021. The action plan was developed after the 2018 Beijing Summit and the Seventh Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which was held in Beijing from 2 to 4 September 2018.

Beijing Declaration of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, 2009

The first Beijing Declaration of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which mapped the way forward for cooperation between China and Africa. This first gathering was attended by ministers in charge of foreign affairs, foreign trade and international co-operation, economic or social affairs from China and African countries from 10 to 12 October 2000. 

FORUM ON CHINA-AFRICA COOPERATION SHARM EL SHEIKH ACTION PLAN(2010-2012)

1.1 Ministers in charge of foreign affairs and economic cooperation from China and 49 African countries (hereinafter referred to as “the two sides”) met in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on 8-9 November 2009 for the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Declaration of Sharm El Sheikh of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation

We, the ministers of foreign affairs and ministers in charge of economic cooperation of the People’s Republic of China and 49 African countries, met in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 8 to 9 November 2009 for the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC).