China pledge USD 10 bn in aid to Africa

Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), Nov 8 : China Sunday announced USD 10 billion in concessional loans to African nations.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced the loans while addressing the opening ceremony of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Xinhua reported.

He also announced various new measures aimed at pushing forward China-Africa cooperation in the next three years.

"Whatever change may take place in the world... our policy of supporting Africa's economic and social development will not change," Wen said.

China also proposed to establish a China-Africa partnership in addressing climate change and has decided to build 100 clean energy projects for Africa covering solar power, bio-gas and small hydro-power.

For the heavily indebted countries and least developed countries in Africa having diplomatic relations with China, China would cancel their debts associated with interest-free government loans due to mature by the end of 2009.

Wen also announced that it would further open up its market to African products and ensure zero-tariff treatment to 95 percent of the products from the least developed African countries having diplomatic relations with China, starting with 60 percent of the products within 2010.

--IANS