Sun Guangxiang, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, announced the policies at the first press conference for the "China-Africa Cooperation Forum -- Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000", due to open tomorrow morning.

Sun said that China will continue to encourage its enterprises with good credibility to invest in Africa.

Chinese companies will invest in projects in accordance with the conditions in Africa, so as to increase the revenue of local governments and employment opportunities in those countries, he said.

The Chinese government has decided to set up a special fund to support Chinese enterprises investing in Africa, Sun said.

He noted that China will provide economic and technical assistance to African countries, including concessional-interest and interest-free loans.

China will also set up a special human resources development fund to promote the exchange of technicians between the two sides, according to Sun.

He said that China will alleviate or exempt the debts of certain debt-ridden, poverty-stricken and under-developed African countries.

He added that detailed figures will be announced during the forum.

Sun noted that the economic and trade relations between China and Africa have been developing rapidly in recent years. He said that the bilateral trade volume reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars last year, and the figure stood at 6.7 billion U.S. dollars during the first eight months this year, up 67 percent over the same period last year.

He predicted that the bilateral trade volume is likely to exceed 10 billion U.S. dollars this year.

Chinese enterprises have set up 485 projects in 47 African countries, with a total contractual investment of 970 million U.S. dollars, of which the Chinese side accounts for 664 million U.S. dollars, he noted.

China has also made major reform to its foreign aid mode, Sun said.

So far, China has provided preferential loans to 23 African countries and implemented 33 projects, all of which have brought good economic results, he said.

Sun stressed that the economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa conforms to the long-term interest of the two sides.

China welcomes African companies of strength to cooperate with Chinese enterprises, Sun said, adding that there are already many African businesses looking for investment opportunities in China.

For example, a company from Cote d'Ivoire visited a Chocolate factory in South China's Guangdong Province recently, Sun said.

Many African enterprises have taken a practical attitude toward cooperating with China, he noted.

The cooperation between enterprises of China and Africa has become the mainstream in the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, the Chinese official said.

(People’s Daily 10/10/2000)