Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, the China- Africa economic and trade cooperation has entered a new stage of allround development, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao here Saturday afternoon.

Wen made the remark when addressing the High-level Dialogue and second Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs.

In 2005, the Sino-African trade volume reached 39.7 billion U.S. dollars, almost four times of that in 2000, he said. In the first nine months of this year, bilateral trade volume totaled 40.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 42 percent year on year, according to Wen.

Although in recent years, China has continuously witnessed trade deficit towards Africa, it still pays great attention to increasing import from Africa, he said.

China has given zero-tariff treatment to 190 export items from the 28 least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic ties with China, he said.

By the end of 2005, China's investment in Africa totaled 6.27 billion U.S. dollars. So far, China has signed investment protection agreements with 28 African countries, and agreements on avoiding double taxation with eight African countries, he said.

Under the framework of the FOCAC, China undertook 176 whole-set projects concerning roads, schools, hospitals and stadium in 42 African countries, offering timely humanitarian aid to some African regions hit by natural disasters, he said.

China has canceled debt totaling 10.9 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China, signed 27 framework agreements on preferential loan, and trained about 10,000 professionals for African countries, he said.

Source: Xinhua