China's cooperation with African countries is transparent, mutual-beneficial, open and inclusive, China's Special Representative on African Affairs Liu Guijin said on Monday.

Liu told UN diplomats and officials at the UN Headquarters in New York that "all cooperation between China and African countries on oil sector and mineral sector is transparent, mutual-beneficial, open, inclusive, and does not rule out other partners."

The Chinese Representative made the remarks at a briefing on China-Africa Relations co-organized by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and the Permanent Mission of China.

Bilateral trade between China and Africa has been increasing steadily, he said, adding that the overall China-Africa trade was just US$2 billion at the end of 2000 while the figure reached 55 billion at the end of 2006.

However, he pointed out that compared with the potential trade between the two sides, the trade volume is not big.

In the area of investment, more and more Chinese companies now come to Africa to invest mainly in infrastructure as well as mineral and energy sectors, Liu said.

"On this aspect, we are faced with some criticism basically from the media and NGOs mainly from the developed countries," he noted, calling it some kind of tendency to politicized that commercial dealing.

"According to calculation of the international organization, the total oil China imported from Africa in 2006 was only 8.7 percent of the total African oil export to other countries," he said, adding that "the oil the United States imported from Africa was 33 percent, and European countries 36 percent."

"That means China only buys small proportion of African oil export," the Chinese official concluded. 

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2007)