Africa: News - Chinese Foreign Minister, AU Chairperson Inaugurate China-Funded Africa Center for Disease Control HQ in Addis Abeba

11 January 2023
Addis Standard (Addis Ababa)

Addis Abeba — The visiting Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahmat, have today inaugurated the Headquarters of Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC) located in Ethiopia's capital in Addis Abeba.

The Chinese government pledged to support the construction of Africa CDC at the 2018 Beijing Summit and the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China - Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing. The move was widely welcomed by African leaders.

Located in the African Village, south of Addis Abeba, the state-of-the-art Africa CDC HQ rests in an area of 90,000m2 with a total construction area of nearly 40,000m2.

It includes, among others, a data center, an emergency operation center, a laboratory, a resource center, briefing rooms, training and conference centers, offices, and expatriate apartments. The complex is constructed, furnished and equipped by the Government of China.

The headquarters building is expected to become one of the best-equipped centers for disease control in Africa, allowing the Africa CDC to play its role as the technical institution coordinating disease prevention, surveillance and control in the continent, in partnership with the national public health institutes and ministries of health of Member States.

In accordance with a number of agreements concluded between the AU and the Government of China, the AU Commission and the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China signed the Implementation Agreement on the Africa CDC HQ's building project in July 2020.

Foreign Minister Qin Gang is on five-countries tour in Africa, which started in Ethiopia, and will cover Benin, Angola, Gabon and Egypt as well as the AU and the League of Arab States Headquarters "to deepen the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and boost friendly cooperation."

In a meeting he held with Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen yesterday, the two countries signed Memorandum of Understanding to further enhance their cooperation on political and economic issues, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. AS

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