Eight major initiatives with African countries
Xi said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields on industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchanges and peace and security.
China will extend a total of 60 billion US dollars of financing to Africa, Xi announced.
The financing will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.
The financing includes 15 billion US dollars of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, 20 billion US dollars of credit lines, the setting up of a 10-billion-US dollar special fund for development financing and a 5-billion-US dollar special fund for financing imports from Africa. Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least 10 billion US dollars of investment in Africa in the next three years.
China will exempt certain African countries from outstanding debts incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese government loans due by the end of 2018, Xi announced.
The exemption will be granted to Africa's least developed countries, heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked and small island developing countries that have diplomatic relations with China.
Experts on China-Africa cooperation
Positive responses have flooded in following President Xi Jinping's speech at the opening ceremony of the The opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Many share the opinion that the win-win cooperation benefits both sides and the world at large.
Geoffrey Onyeama, foreign minister of Nigeria, believed that it makes sense that the theme of the FOCAC summit recognizes that China and Africa share the future, and also the cooperation between the two is not about taking advantage of the other side but about sharing prosperity.?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)'s deputy strategic program leader Maya Takagi echoed Onyeama's stance that China-Africa cooperation is the two sides working with each other to increase their capacities.?
On economic cooperation, Malcolm Sweeting, UK governor and Belt and Road Initiative experts board member, emphasizes that "China can be incredibly helpful to global economic growth."
Speaking of the Western misunderstanding of China-Africa ties, Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the African Department (AFR) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said African countries can learn a lot from China's development experience.
"I always believe that the cooperation between China and Africa is multi-level and diverse, which is win-win cooperation for both sides," the director said.
?
