Committed to expanding cooperation with Africa, says China
January 28th, 2012 - 3:24 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Jan 28 (IANS) China will steadfastly strengthen its cooperation with African countries, a top Chinese official said ahead of his visit to Ethiopia.
Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks in a written interview with the Ethiopian News Agency.
Over recent years, Africa has played an increasingly important role in international and regional affairs, said Jia, who left Beijing Friday morning to attend the opening ceremony of the 18th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, and to pay an official goodwill visit to Ethiopia, reported Xinhua.
He stressed that his attendance to the AU summit and his visit to Ethiopia this time is “to show to Africa and the international community at large that China firmly commits itself to enhancing solidarity and cooperation with African countries, firmly supports African efforts for strength through unity and the integration process, and that China firmly supports a greater African role in international and regional affairs”.
And in conducting cooperation with Africa, China will “adhere to the principles of mutual benefit and common development, making sure that our assistance will be results-oriented and that we will not interfere in the internal affairs of the recipient countries”, said Jia.
As for the ever-expanding Chinese investment in Africa, Jia said that investment cooperation is an important part of China-Africa economic cooperation.
The Chinese government has encouraged competitive and reputable Chinese companies to invest in Africa and has taken many measures to guide such efforts, such as providing concessional loans, establishing the China-Africa Development Fund and setting up economic and trade cooperation zones in African countries, he said.
“China’s investment in Africa has grown rapidly in recent years. The stock of Chinese investment in Africa surged from $490 million at the end of 2003 to $14.7 billion in 2011, which covers mining, finance, manufacturing, construction, tourism, agriculture, forestry, animal farming, fishery and many other fields,” Jia added.
He also said the number of Chinese companies that have made investment in Africa has surpassed 2,000.
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Tags: addis ababa, africa development, african countries, capital of ethiopia, china beijing, chinese companies, chinese investment, chinese official, common development, concessional loans, economic cooperation, ethiopian news agency, goodwill visit, investment cooperation, mutual benefit, political consultative conference, recipient countries, regional affairs, strength through unity, trade cooperation