Careful use of foreign aid benefits everyone involved
0 
In the past, foreign aid mainly focused on helping the poor. A food assistance project in Shandong Province funded by the German government, for example, helped lift 1 million people in the Yimeng Mountain area out of poverty.
The foreign aid programs now cover more than 30 fields, including agriculture, irrigation, transportation, culture, education, health, energy, and environmental protection. More and more resources have been utilized to help China's institutional reform, such as improving governance and building a more complete legal system. The Chinese anti-monopoly law, passed in 2007, greatly benefited from an anti-monopoly project funded by the Japanese government.
China does not have full control over the money it receives in aid. The aid is often not paid in cash, but used to pay for joint activities by the donor and recipient country. For instance, if a donor country provides China with $5 million of aid for a rural development project, one third of it may be used for purchasing devices and equipment from the donor partner, one third for paying the foreign experts involved, and the rest for delivering technology in China or training Chinese abroad. Today most of the aid is no longer used for purchasing equipment, but for expertise and personnel.
Foreign aid programs in China do not only serve the interests of China itself. Thanks to the effect and efficiency of China's implementation of assistance projects, many countries and organizations are willing to cooperate with China, because the experiences can be valuable examples to be disseminated to other developing countries.
Issues like HIV/AIDS control, climate change and environmental protection, which are now global challenges, need to be tackled through joint efforts by the international community.
Donor countries also benefit from the cooperation. Through cultural and economic exchange, foreign products gain publicity in the Chinese market and help these countries establish economic and political relationships with China.
A training program to send government officials to Japan, for instance, drastically changed many Chinese officials' stereotypical view of the Japanese people. Such efforts can change the image of a country and contribute to mutual understanding, particularly at the grass-roots level.
China may be growing fast, but substantial portions of the country languish in poverty. Many donor countries agree that the provision of aid will still be necessary for a long time to come.
The author is an editor with the Global Times. wugang@globaltimes.com.cn
Go to Forum >>0 Comments