African countries should look beyond financial support from China to learn from its development practices, a South African researcher has said.

Luke Jordan, a former private service development specialist with World Bank and now an independent researcher, made the remarks on Thursday when addressing the media in Johannesburg about the forthcoming Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Jordan said African countries could learn from China which he said rose from humble beginnings to be world's second-biggest economy.

"Africans have to learn by doing like what China did. I am not saying they should mimic China but copy their policies and making it applicable to African countries for them to make adjustments here and there.

"China introduced some Special Economic Zones and delegated leaders to various portfolios. They monitored progress at the same time making adjustments in their experimentation and it worked well," said Jordan.

He said China was "brave to experiment with targets and monitor them from central to provincial level", adding "China gets things done gradually but steadily."

China has succeeded in developing rural areas and it invests heavily in academic researches and has established a number of think tanks at national and provincial levels, Jordan said.

"This is what Africa can learn from China," he said.

China is willing to share its knowledge with African countries, said Romain Dittgen, a senior researcher with the South African Institute of International Affairs.

He said "new things" and improvement were expected in the Sino-Africa relations after the Johannesburg Summit due in December.

"We see (this year's) FOCAC as a time to reflect on news things and these will take shape after the summit," he said.

Dittgen also praised China's contribution of peacekeeping troops to United Nations peace missions in Africa.