African Countries Welcome Chinese InvestorsWith a less than fluent greeting in Chinese, Hassan Fahmy Mohamed drew closer to his Chinese audience by starting a briefing on the investment and trade policies of Egypt Monday in Xiamen, coastal city in east China.The Briefing on the Investment and Trade Policies of 13 African Countries was held by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) Monday in Xiamen of Fujian Province. Principal officials from Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe introduced their countries' laws and policies on foreign investment and possible projects for foreign investors respectively. Ethiopia is a big "gold mine" waiting for discoverers, said Tilahun Ghelaw, an official of the Ethiopia Investment Authority giving the information that almost all areas of trade and industry in Ethiopia are open to foreign investors. Protus Sigei, a senior economist from Kenya's Ministry of Finance and Planning said he believes that Kenya serves as an ideal base for exploring bigger markets. According to a newly signed agreement, over 100 kinds of products made in Kenya are allowed to enter the U.S. market with no tariffs. Ghana is the host of 20 percent of Chinese investment in Africa, noted Samuel O. Archer, a principal economist of the Ministry of Finance of Ghana when briefing his country's investment climate. The representative of South Africa was proud to say that South Africa is a perfect combination of top class infrastructure and abundant resources. These countries hope that Chinese investors will be interested in trade and such fields as textiles, crop planting, livestock raising, farm product processing, tourism, jewelry, building and construction, and hydropower. More than 100 representatives of Chinese enterprises attended the briefing. MOFTEC, the sponsor, prepared a compact disc introducing the trade and investment policies of the 13 African countries for every participant. Wei Jianguo, MOFTEC assistant minister, said that Africa is the world's biggest developing continent with rich resources. This new century is a century featuring the development of Africa. It is an essential part of Sino-African friendly cooperation to promote economic, technology and trade cooperation between Chinese and African companies. He said that China encourages its business people to conduct direct contact with their African counterparts. According to statistics provided by MOFTEC, the import and export trade volume between China and Africa scored nearly 5.3 billion U.S. dollars during the first half of this year, up 12.3 percent over the same period of last year. China had set up 526 plants in Africa by June, 2001. The briefings were held at the Fifth China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) which opened last Friday in Xiamen, highlighting "two-way" investment for the first time while continuing to attract foreign investment to China. MOFTEC vice-minister Sun Guangxiang announced Sunday that MOFTEC would organize Chinese business people to inspect the African market during the first half of next year in an effort to further Sino-African economic and trade cooperation. |
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