Eight steps to support Africa
China proposed an eight-point package to support African development at the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum last year.
The package involved reducing debt, cutting tariffs on African imports, increasing aid, improving vocational training and increasing investment.
The measures were aimed at further reinforcing the ability of African countries for independent development, sharpening the competitive edge of African products, improving the medical and educational level in these nations, accelerating their economic progress, increasing the pool of talented personnel, reducing poverty and realizing overall economic and social development in Africa.
The eight steps proposed by the Chinese government are as follows:
China is to double the 2006 level of assistance to Africa by 2009.
It will provide $3 billion in preferential loans and $2 billion in preferential buyers' credit to Africa in the next three years.
It will set up a China-Africa development fund that will reach $5 billion to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and provide support to them.
It will build a conference center for the African Union to support African countries in their efforts to strengthen through unity and support the process of African integration.
It will cancel debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005, owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that maintain diplomatic relations with China.
China will further open its market to Africa by increasing from 190 to over 440 the number of export items receiving zero-tariff treatment from the least developed countries in Africa having diplomatic ties with China.
It will establish three to five trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa in the next three years.
Over the next three years, China will train 15,000 African professionals, send 100 senior agricultural experts to Africa and set up 10 special agricultural technology demonstration centers in the continent, as well as build 30 hospitals there and provide 300 million yuan in grants for providing artemisinin and building 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers. China will also dispatch 300 youth volunteers to Africa, build 100 rural schools and increase the number of Chinese government scholarships to African students from the current 2,000 per year to 4,000 per year by 2009.
(China Daily 05/15/2007 page27)
