The narrative of a rising Africa will remain a pipe-dream as long as there is no industrialization or manufacturing of scale. To this effect from Aug. 18 to 19, the Africa Policy Institute (API)-Nairobi in partnership with the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Kenya co-hosted a virtual two-half-day conference themed: Enhancing China-Africa Cooperation on Fighting COVID-19 and Promoting Manufacturing.

The conference discussions were organized around four main thematic areas: China-Africa cooperation in infrastructural development and its role in boosting the manufacturing industry in Africa; the impact of infrastructure development on Africa's industrialization under the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative; China-Africa cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on prospects in the manufacturing sector; and lastly, opportunities available and measures needed to promote Sino-African cooperation in the post-COVID-19 world.

The conference participants were eminent scholars from Africa and China. Reflecting on the various submissions by the scholars, one school of thought that was strongly echoed by all is that Africa and China have always shared a spirit of mutual solidarity.

Since 2009, when China overtook the United States of America as Africa's leading trading partner, Beijing has made efforts to promote Africa's industrialization and capacity for manufacturing.

In 2015, China launched efforts to help Africa develop industries, ushering in a new era of China-Africa cooperation in manufacturing. At the FOCAC summit in Johannesburg in December 2015, China announced a 10-point cooperation plan to promote industrialization and agricultural modernization in Africa, devoting U.S.$60 billion to back up the plan.

The forum also established the China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation fund (CAFIC) with $10 billion of capital to invest in promising manufacturing projects.

Aligning with the African Union Strategic Framework - Agenda 2063, and the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of 2016-2025 as the "Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa", the virtual two-half-day conference that brought together over 40 African and 15 Chinese scholars emphasized China's contribution to the war on COVID-19 across the African continent and the efforts to revive the manufacturing sector after the pandemic.

Notably, African countries such as Kenya have sought to strengthen partnership with China to promote and develop its manufacturing industry. In the 2018 FOCAC summit in Beijing, industrialization was highlighted as a top priority for China-Africa cooperation.

By 2019, a number of major Chinese-assisted infrastructure projects were completed, including the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway; and Cote d'Ivoire's Soubre hydropower plant. These projects have provided transport and energy to develop local manufacturing needed to pay for their capital input.

Further, China has supported the implementation of over 200 infrastructure projects. Currently, Chinese companies have completed and are building projects which are designed to "help add to or upgrade about 2,000 km of railways, 30,000 km of highways, more than 30,000 km of transmission and transformation lines, 85 million tonnes per year of port handling capacity, more than 9 million tonnes per day of clean water treatment capacity, and about 20,000 MW of power generation capacity" in Africa.

However, Africa's industrialization and manufacturing sector have had their fair share of challenges as articulated by the African scholars.

For instance, many African countries, due to the attributes of globalization, have restructured their economies and have incorporated trade policies and liberal economics to support development strategies. However, these reforms have arrived with their own challenges, including the influx of imported commodities resulting in the closure of industries with consequential local job losses.

Also, with less technological advancement and digitalization in the industrial sector, the ability of African countries to compete with other highly-advanced economies is low. In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the challenge of inadequate and unstable electricity power supply has affected the growth of their manufacturing sectors. Other countries like Kenya experience high power tariffs which have rendered the manufacturing market less attractive to many international investors.

Moving forward, key policy recommendations on boosting manufacturing in Africa were set forth.

First, all are living in a "new normalcy" imposed by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is not only a threat to the health and medical sector but also an economic threat that if not properly handled will wipe out all the economies, livelihoods and human survival. Thus, it is of great importance to rethink how to improve the growth of Africa's manufacturing sector and other economies as with the continuing fight against COVID-19.

Second, all need to build on past cooperation. China and Africa have a long history of cooperation that has formed the largest market in the world comprising of about 2.6 billion people. Both the two civilizations need to tap on this market to build their manufacturing sectors and as a whole their respective economies.

Third, both of the two civilizations need to focus on capacity building. On this, Africa needs to have policy integration and institutional coherence; build technical capacity; and think about the financing mechanisms which it needs in order to prioritize manufacturing and other sectors of the economy, and innovation. Technological transfers from China are necessary. This will lead to sharing of skills between the two partners. Also, there is need for political stability to prevent rising instability from undermining Africa's development.

Fourth, all must engage in development centered on Africa and China. This requires the empowerment of think tanks to provide a knowledge base for Sino-African mutual cooperation.

Finally, Africa and China need to come out so strongly as indicating that the future rests with supporting multilateralism, not unilateralism, or rogue diplomacy and weaponization of a disease to gain political mileage. Hence, the conference will have a declaration of universal principles on multilateralism as the cornerstone of building a community of shared destiny for humanity, that will be used to defeat COVID-19 and rebuild both China's and Africa's industries and manufacturing sectors in the post-COVID era.