China Vows to Support Africa in Social and Economic DevelopmentChinese foreign trade minister Shi Guangsheng announced Wednesday China's commitment to support the economic and social development of African countries, including a debt exemption worth 1.2 billion US dollars owed by some heavily indebted countries in the coming two years.Shi made the announcement in a speech this morning at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which opened Tuesday in Beijing. Shi said China will continue to provide assistance of various kinds within its capacity to African countries according to their different economic conditions. As its economic development level rises and its own comprehensive national strength builds up, he said, China will gradually expand the scale of assistance. In an effort to relieve the heavy debt burden of African countries, China will reduce and cancel debts worth 10 billion yuan, approximately 1.2 billion US dollars, owed by heavily indebted and least developed countries in Africa, Shi said. Meanwhile, he said China will provide seed money from a special fund for competent Chinese companies with good credit standing to encourage them to invest in Africa. Shi also said China will set up an African Human Resources Development Fund in a bid to help African countries train professionals. Toward the 21st century, Shi called on China and African countries to "further promote cooperation in economic and trade sectors, strengthen collaboration in information technology and electronic commerce, intensify dialogue and consultation between Chinese and African governments so as to address problems, enhance communication and draw upon each other's experience and make common progress". He also called on China and Africa to "consolidate coordination and cooperation in international and regional economic organizations, endeavor to achieve economic prosperity and development of the two sides and safeguard the interests of developing countries". ) "China have always maintained that Africa is a positive factor in promoting world peace and development and an important force that should in no way be neglected on the international stage", he said. "China will, as always, value and strengthen its solidarity and cooperation with African countries and unswervingly side with African countries and peoples to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries", Shi said. He thanked the African countries for their support for China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), adding that China's WTO accession will benefit not only China, but also the trade and economic development of the entire world as well as Sino-African trade cooperation. Two-way trade between China and Africa has seen annual growth since the founding of the People's Republic 51 years ago. Bilateral trade in 1999 amounted to 6.484 billion US dollars, up 17.2 percent from 1998. China's exports to Africa last year stood at 4.109 billion dollars, up 1.3 percent from the previous year, and its imports from Africa reached 2.375 billion dollars, up 60.9 percent. China-Africa trade cooperation has maintained a sound momentum of development as the growth of China's imports from Africa have outpaced that of its exports, and trade imbalance is gradually being alleviated, Shi noted. Alongside the swift development of trade, other economic collaboration between China and Africa has also seen significant progress. The Chinese government has signed intergovernmental trade agreements with the governments of the majority of African countries, established regular mixed committees on economic, trade and technical cooperation and set up mechanisms for multilateral and bilateral consultations. The Chinese government has rendered assistance of various kinds to African countries, leading to 640 completed projects, he said. Incomplete statistics show that by the end of June 2000, Chinese companies had established nearly 480 enterprises in 47 African countries with a total contractual investment of 820 million US dollars, of which Chinese capital amounted to 530 million dollars. Since 1995, China have set up 11 Investment Development and Trade Promotion Centers in Africa, which have played a positive role in facilitating multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation between China and African countries, he said. |
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