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China Pledges to Help Africa Achieve Sustainable Development
China will do its part to help African countries achieve sustainable development and developed countries should also do so, a senior Chinese official Tuesday told a UN conference.
China last year promised to relieve debts of heavily indebted African countries by up to 10 billion RMB (about 1.2 billion US dollars) in two years.
Addressing the high-level segment at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) substantive session of 2001, Qiao Zonghuai, head of the Chinese delegation, said that China aims to provide Africa with assistance in as many ways as possible, such as increasing the scale of assistance and improving the institutional framework so that China's assistance will better meet the needs of the African countries.
Qiao said China will earmark funds to encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa and China has also established a Fund for Human Resources Development of Africa, which provides professional training for African countries, he said.
The Chinese official pointed out that Africa's population accounts for 18.5 percent of the world's population, yet its GDP represents only 3.8 percent of the world's total. African countries occupy a tiny 1.5-percent share of world's exports and two percent of world's foreign direct investment, he added.
Qiao said the international community, especially developed countries, is duty-bound to help African countries reduce poverty and achieve development.
He urged the international community to relieve the heavy debt burden from many African countries so that they can devote their energy, limited resources to sustainable development. He also called on countries around the world to expand and improve market access for African products, to transfer technology to Africa and to help Africa fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
This year's ECOSOC annual session was divided into five segments: coordination, operational activities, humanitarian, high- level and general. The theme of this year's high level segment, scheduled for July 16-18, is the "Role of the United Nations system in supporting the efforts of African countries to achieve sustainable development."
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