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THE Lesotho Ambassador to China, Madam Ntsinyi Lebohang has called on the African and the international media to portray the continent positively in order to attract the needed foreign direct investments (FDI).

"Africa has its problems just as Europe, Asia and America. It is unfortunate that we are always portrayed as if everything is burning in Africa", she said. 

Speaking at a press launch of a China-Africa Economic and Trade Exposition to be held at the beautiful Chinese coastal city of Qingdao in July, this year, Madam Lebohang said such negative press had the tendency to prevent foreign investors from investing in Africa.

"Africa has positive attributes that needed to be portrayed. We are not always at war", the diplomat stated.

She said even though she had come across a lot of negative press towards Africa elsewhere, she was happy that the Chinese press was not hostile towards Africa.

Madam Lebohang said efforts by African leaders to develop the continent through investments from their foreign counterparts would not yield the needed dividend if the media on the continent always preferred to hap only on the negatives.  

She called for assistance to ensure that Africa developed like China, explaining that "the win-win cooperation agenda can only be achieved if Africa's potentials are portrayed in a positive light".

Madam Lebohang said there was the need for more employment avenues to be created in the African continent in order to engage the youth since the "devil always provides negative work for idle hands", explaining that that could only be achieved through increased FDI.

For his part, the Mauritius Ambassador to China, Mr Paul Chong Leung appealed to Chinese investors to take the risk to seek what type of investments they could establish on the African continent.

"A lot of trade can be done with Africa. It is up to Chinese investors to explore and benefit from the numerous opportunities on the African continent", he stated.

The President of the China-African Countries Trade Promotion Association, organisers of the expo, Mr Zhang Yi said China-Africa trade development had attracted lots interests for Chinese of enterprises.

"As an organisation that opens its windows for bilateral trade cooperation, we believe that building a platform to share information, make technological communications, discuss cooperation and exhibit business opportunities would be an effective way to further boost cooperation between China and Africa".