The fifth China-Africa Youth Festival opened Monday in Beijing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

During the seven-day festival, 42 African youth representatives, along with Chinese youth representatives, will attend various activities showcasing Chinese culture, and visit companies and high-tech industrial parks in Beijing and East China's Jiangxi province.

The festival, since its first opening in 2016, has become an event that enhances exchanges and mutual understanding among Chinese and African youth, Wang Jiarui, chairman of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, said at the opening ceremony.

Ambassador Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman, the permanent representative of the African Union to China, said that exchanges and cooperation between African and Chinese youth have been high on the agenda of FOCAC since the inauguration 20 years ago. Going forward, both sides will continue to bridge the communication and cooperation on all fronts among their youths using platforms such as the festival.

Deng Li, assistant minister of foreign affairs, said that young people are essential to China-Africa relations. He also called upon the youth from China and African countries to work jointly in developing the FOCAC and forging deeper cooperation.

One of the African representatives, Sumayyah Hosany, a Mauritius expat doctor in China, volunteered at a novel coronavirus prevention-and-control checkpoint of an expressway exit in Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province. Speaking of her choice to volunteer in the medical team, she said that China has become her second hometown over the 12 years she studied and worked in the country, and that volunteering was her way of giving back to the local community. She believed that in dealing with the challenge presented by the pandemic, China-Africa?cooperation will inject new momentum in global economic development.

The opening ceremony was attended by over 200 participants including 42 African youth representatives and 34 diplomatic dignitaries and Chinese government officials and youth representatives.

The festival is held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the Jiangxi Provincial Government.