Chinese worker in Africa. (Photo/Xinhua)

JOHANNESBURG, June 13 -- China has acted as an immensely important partner in Africa's development all the time, Mark Suzman, president of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"China is an immensely important partner in Africa's development. It has been...over many decades. And certainly African countries see China as a very distinct partner," said Suzman.

Suzman regarded China as a "good example for Africa" in terms of managing many challenges, such as health and agriculture.

"Even acknowledging that China still has some large pockets of domestic poverty that need help, but there is a lot of learning from Chinese experiences for Africa," he said.

In the area of health, Suzman said, China has a remarkable record in reducing child mortality and maternal mortality over the last 30 years, and that's exactly the model that many African countries are now following."

"Some of the countries that have had real improvements like Ethiopia and Rwanda have looked very consciously to China, for example, on how to do everything from access to vaccines, to the training of health care workers," the president added.

Meanwhile, he described China's agriculture model a "perfect example" that the foundation is devoted to popularize in Africa.

In his view, China's agricultural success was built on small holder farming. "Unarguably it is the world's best model of a productivity revolution driven by small holder farmers. That's exactly the kind of thing that we with partners working for a green revolution in Africa are trying to model here, to see how they use technology to improve yields of rice , how they use training and extension services by small holder farmers to create access to market."