On December 13, 2021, He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), jointly attended the first meeting of the China-Africa Union coordination mechanism on jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative via video link and delivered speeches, respectively. The meeting is to implement the spirit of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and conforms to the arrangement of the Cooperation Plan between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the African Union on Jointly Promoting the Building of the Belt and Road Initiative. The related departments of China and the AUC exchanged views and deepened their consensus on cooperation in such fields as COVID-19 pandemic prevention, food, energy, capacity investment, infrastructure, quality standards, statistics, and others. In the meeting, the two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China and the African Union Commission on the Establishment of the Coordination Mechanism for Cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative.
Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the NDRC, Ren Hongbin, Vice Minister of Commerce, Wu Jianghao, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, officials from related departments and Mission of China to AU and related representatives of the AUC attended the meeting.