What the FOCAC Australia!

Not that you'll read about it much in the Australian mainstream media but Australia's economic future is currently being shaped by the 1,000's of delegates from 54 African nations currently in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

A relationship that has seen bi-lateral trade increase from US$10B to $280B in 20 years.

And with a combined populous of 2.6 billion people, that's a market with quite some considerable upside still.

With the usual summation of the successful endeavours of the past this event, emphasised by the opening address from President Xi, is more about building for the future.

A shared future.

China is offering to African nations, on top of its already not insurmountable infrastructure and nation-building activities to date, a framework for independent nation-building drawing from its own experiences of the last 30 years.

The action plan outlined for the next three years covers trade, industrial supply-chain cooperation, technology and infrastructure connectivity, development cooperation, healthcare, rural development, wellbeing, green development and security.

All the elements of modernisation that China has achieved "with Chinese characteristics" for internalisation according to the sovereign requirements of each participating African nation.

China is providing 360 billion yuan ($50.69 billion) over the next three years to implement the 10 initiatives, and has granted duty-free treatment to 100% of the tariff lines of products from least developed countries (LDC's) with diplomatic ties with China.?

Trade

This increased trade with the continent will be settled in each nations local currency, with imports from China of course to be settled in RMB.

Infrastructure

Within these 10 broader initiatives China will help African nations implement some 30 infrastructure projects, including a multi-modal sea-rail transport network that connects China's central and western regions.

Health and Food

China will send 2,000 medical personnel and public health experts and 500 agricultural experts to implement healthcare and clean energy and green development projects.

There is a program to encourage Chinese businesses to invest in Africa to create no less than 1 million local jobs and provide 60,000 training opportunities with priority given to programs for women's empowerment and youth development.?

All in the new nation-building areas of green development, food security and health.

When diving into any of the key areas being worked on, one can't help but be encouraged by the progress.

People-to-People Exchanges

By inviting 1,000 African political party representatives to China for exchanges China is inviting policy decision makers to come and see how China's economic development can be adapted to each country's own context and circumstances.

FOCAC Action Plan

If Australia's policy makers (indeed anyone of voting age in Australia) have any independent strategic planning capacity beyond their Beltway interlocutors, they would do well to have a read of the FOCAC Action Plan readily accessible from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

BRICS?

And there are a few African nations now in BRICS, with more lining up to join.

So what the FOCAC Australia?

What does all this mean for Australia?

Is anyone actually discussing these developments in the context of our strategic decision making in "the National interests".

Do our diplomats actually have the capacity to "cooperate where we can" when it is career-limiting for public servants to "engage in the national interest" when that well might mean engaging positively and pro-actively with China.

Have any of our politicians or Mandarins done a similar "Study Tour" of the economic transformation underway in China and looked for ways to learn or collaborate?

Or does the rising horizon of a National election and a focus on "cost of living" mean we just don't have the capacity, or appetite to even consider a Plan B to our failed AUKUS hegemony ambitions.

Surely there are some inside the machinery of Canberra who can read the room without 5-Eyes.

Our ASEAN neighbours sure are, because every billion RMB being spent in Africa is another finger on the scale of increased competition to their international competitiveness.

And maybe thats all this needs to be broken down into to make sense.

A politicians football teams ability to make the finals or Australia's standing as a cricketing nation.

Because we're currently playing parklands footy while the pro's are into squad development.