Kampala — AFRICAN leaders are winding up landmark a visit to China that is expected to raise the relationship to greater heights.

Since they arrived in Beijing last Friday, the forty-odd African leaders have been informed of a major debt cancellation, and of the offer on fresh loans and credit.

The one great advantage of the bigger Sino-Africa relationship is the new development model that China offers. As a developing country that is fast transiting into a developed one, China's growth pattern is more relevant to the Third World economies of Africa.

In trade and investment, the Sino-African relationship is much more straight-forward than the Western model that has dominated in the last few decades. Loans and credit, as illustrated by the newly announced offer, are more readily available for economies that need them desperately.

But equally critical is the investment that many sub-Saharan economies are benefiting from Chinese capital. Where foreign investment has traditionally been narrow, limited to a single project or cause, China is wont to spread quite widely, putting money in infrastructure development on top of the primary investment. Uganda's own Mandela National Stadium is an example of this.

Trade between Africa and China has grown from $3b in 1995 to $32b in 2005, which is 10% of the continent's total trade. The trade is also growing. For it to be beneficial in the long run, Africa must ensure that the terms of trade do not tilt too heavily against it. It is important to maintain a healthy balance of trade deficit, and work towards a surplus, wherever possible.

This would call for addition of more value to exports, in the form of manufactured goods that can compete in the Chinese economy.

To this end, Africa must negotiate for lower tariffs on its exports the way it is doing with the European Union on agricultural commodities, and in the form that the US's AGOA regime guaranteed preferential treatment. China has shown tremendous goodwill to Africa in giving our exports more access, so this should simply be concluded.