President Museveni has arrived in Beijing China for a four-day working visit on the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jingping.
The President was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and China’s Ambassador to Uganda Zhang Zhuqiang. On arrival at Beijing International Airport, they were received by the Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Xianfa.
A group of nine African diplomats led by Uganda’s Ambassador to China, Chrispus Kiyonga, were also present to receive the President.
According to the Presidential Press Unit, Museveni is expected to make a keynote address on Tuesday during the official opening of the Coordinators Meeting of the Implementation of the Follow-Up Actions of Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Tuesday’s follow-up meeting is mainly a ministerial gathering, examines progress on implementation of the resolutions that were agreed upon at the heads of state summit in Beijing last year.
In September last year, President Xi Xinping hosted nearly all African leaders to the FOCAC that arrived at eight major resolutions.
The eight resolutions include; China would launch programmes of cooperation with Africa on the industrial and agriculture front, develop a joint infrastructure development plan with the African Union, increase imports from Africa especially non-resource products and implement 50 green projects in Africa to respond to climate change.
Other resolutions were on social and cultural support, healthcare support, people-to-people exchanges, security cooperation.
President Jinping within the same summit announced a financing kitty of $60 billion to ensure that all the resolutions are implemented.
While in Beijing, Museveni is also expected to hold bilateral talks with his host, Xi Jinping and will witness the signing of a raft of agreements between their countries for cooperation in the fields of finance, agriculture, among others.
Meanwhile later on his visit, Museveni is expected to be the chief guest at the opening of the first ever China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which will be held in Hunan Province.
The expo fulfils one of the resolutions arrived at last year in Beijing and is seen as “a new mechanism for commercial cooperation with Africa, a new platform to deliver the trade and economic measures of FOCAC, and a new window for sub-national business cooperation with Africa.”
In this Expo, several Ugandan manufacturers will have their products on display at the Expo.
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