File photo shows workers at Mpund Wild Honey, a Chinese-run firm, display the fully packaged honey in central Zambia's Kabwe town, Nov. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun)
LUSAKA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Zambia should formulate a strategy and technical working groups if the country is to benefit from initiatives that came from the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a think-tank has said .
The FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021) was adopted at the summit, held in last September, to confirm that China and Africa will comprehensively enhance pragmatic cooperation focusing on the implementation of the eight major initiatives -- industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, and peace and security.
The Policy Monitoring and Research Center (PMRC) said Zambia should immediately formulate a strategy in order to benefit from the initiatives.
Bernadette Deka, the think-tank's executive director, said preparations should commence now and that some of the initiatives could be aligned to the country's Seventh National Development Plan.
She said in a release that the initiatives present an opportunity for the country to reflect on its efforts to address various key trajectories aimed at national building development.