Hong Lei started the press conference with the following announcement.

ccording to the procedures of the follow-up mechanism of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the agreement between the Chinese and African sides, the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the FOCAC will be held in Beijing from July 19 to 20. The foreign ministers and ministers in charge of overseas economic cooperation of the member states, namely China and fifty African countries, will attend the conference. Chairman of the African Union and others will also be present.

The Conference will assess the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Forum's Fourth Ministerial Meeting in 2009 and review and adopt the Beijing Declaration of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Beijing Action Plan of the Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (2013-2015), mapping out China-Africa cooperation in the next three years. At present, the preparation of the Conference is well under way.

This Conference will be another important meeting of the Forum hosted by China since the 2006 Beijing Summit of the Forum, and also the first ministerial meeting in the second decade of the Forum since its inception.