UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has also delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. He said he sees three areas where this forum can better the development of Africa.

The first would be focusing on poverty reduction. The forum, he said, needs to increase the development impact of trade and infrastructure projects to benefit the lives of Africans. Second would be "strengthening African capacity."

To this end, he said China has already trained thousands of African officials. He encouraged China to continue sharing such knowledge. And third, he strongly encouraged Chinese and African business and financial leaders to work for greener development. He said countries that embrace sustainable energy will improve public health, safeguard the environment, increase prosperity and reduce the chance of climate change.

He also added he appreciated the China-Africa partnership through South-South cooperation which the United Nations has promoted for many years.