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China Ready to Expand Trade, Economic Cooperation With Africa: Official
China is ready to expand trade and economic cooperation with African countries in various forms, Vice- Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) Sun Guangxiang said on June 8.
Sun told the closing ceremony of a workshop for Chinese and African economic officials, the fourth of its kind since 1998, that China is highly interested in developing friendly and cooperative relations with African countries.
"The Chinese people and the African people are both faced with the task of developing their economies and raising the living standards," Sun said. "The Chinese Government will, following the principle of equality and mutual benefit and emphasizing actual results, expand trade and economic cooperation with African partners in various forms with the aim of seeking common development."
The current workshop, initiated by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, demonstrates the wish of the Chinese Government and people to strengthen friendship and to seek common economic development with African countries, Sun added.
Currently, China and Africa cooperate in trade, investment, economic and technological areas and contracting labor services. Two-way trade between China and Africa reached US$6.48 billion in 1999, up 17.2 percent from a year earlier. The trade volume topped US$2.218 billion in the first quarter this year, up 71.7 percent from the same period last year.
Chinese firms invested a total of US$130 million in Africa last year.
China will host a China-African Cooperation Forum, a ministerial-level meeting, here in October. Sun said that forum will provide a tremendous opportunity for the two sides to increase trade and economic cooperation.
A total of 28 economic officials from 15 African countries attended the workshop, which was opened on April 11. They were briefed on China's experiences in reforms and opening to the outside world, and visited Shanghai, Shenzhen in coastal China as well as Sichuan and Qinghai provinces in southwest and northwest China.
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