I. 1st Ministerial Conference.
The First Ministerial Conference of FOCAC was held in Beijing from October 10 to 12, 2000.
Some 80 ministers from China and 44 African states and representatives of 17 regional and international organizations and leaders from business communities of China and Africa attended the meeting.
President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji of the People's Republic of China took part in and addressed the opening and closing ceremonies, respectively.
The Organization of African Unity (predecessor of African Union) "troika", namely President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of the Democratic People's Republic of Algeria, previous OAU president, President Gnasinbe Eyadema of the Republic of Togo, current OAU President, and President Frederic Chiluba of the Republic of Zambia, OAU President in-waiting, and President Benjamin William Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania participated in and addressed the opening ceremony and Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim addressed the closing ceremony.
The two topics of this meeting were "How to promote the establishment of a new international political and economic order in the 21st century" and "How to further strengthen Sino-African economic cooperation and trade under the new circumstances".
The meeting adopted the Beijing Daclaration of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and Programme for China-Africa Cooperation in Economic and Social Development, setting the course for China and African states to develop a new type of partnership for long-term stability, equality and mutaul benefit.
The Chinese government announced meansures including the exemption of RMB 10 billion Yuan of debts of a number of the heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries in Africa and the establishment of the Human Resources Development Fund for Africa.