China earmarks $50 billion financial support for Africa in the next 3 years – Chinese Ambassador

The Chinese government will provide $50.6 billion of financial support through the next three years to African countries for the implementation of the 10 partnership actions reached at the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) recently held in China, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Tong Defa, has said.

He was briefing journalists about the outcome of FOCAC, at his residence in Accra on Wednesday, September 12, 2024.

Defa said President Xi Jinping had told all the 53 leaders of African countries who attended the forum that $29.5 billion would come in the form of credit line, $11.3 billion of assistance in various forms, and at least $9.8 billion of investment in Africa by Chinese companies.

In addition, he said President Jinping said China would encourage and support Africa in issuing panda bonds in China to enhance results-oriented coopera­tion in all areas.

The summit, considered as the biggest diplomatic meeting between China and Africa seeks to build an even stronger and closer partnership among the nations.

It aims to achieve social and economic benefits for the citizens of Africa and China.

China is seeking to enhance an already existing relationship with Africa, which was built on mutual respect and shared prosperity.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana said Presi­dent Jinping had pledged to deepen friendship with Ghana to enhance political mutual trust and promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

He said China was ready to expand cooperation with Ghana in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, en­ergy, mineral resources and infrastructure, and hopes that Ghana would continue to offer relevant support and convenience to Chinese enterprises and citizens.

Defa told the journalists that President Jinping stressed that the FOCAC Beijing Summit summarises the historical experience of China-Africa friendship, clarifies the direction and path for China and Africa to jointly advance modernisation and leads the way for the Global South.

The 10 partnership actions drawn up for China-Af­rica cooperation includes the partnership action for mutual learning among civilisations, a forward looking engagement that seeks to build a platform for gover­nance experience sharing, a China-Africa knowledge network for development, and inviting 1,000 mem­bers of African political parties to China to deepen exchanges.

The second is the Partnership Action for Trade Prosperity, including voluntarily and unilaterally open­ing China’s market wider and giving all LDCs having diplomatic relations with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 per cent tariff lines, which will help turn China’s big market into Africa’s big opportunity.

Additionally, the Partnership Action for Industrial Chain Cooperation, aimed at pushing forward the Pilot Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, launching an “African SMEs empowerment programme”, and jointly building a digital technology cooperation centre.

The fourth action is the Partnership Action for Connectivity, including putting in place a China-Africa network featuring land-sea links and coordinated development for the benefit of trans-regional development in Africa.

The Partnership Action for Development Cooperation, aimed to implement 1,000 “small and beautiful” livelihood projects to deliver more fruits of development to African people.

Besides, the Partnership Action for Health, un­der which China would be sending 2,000 medical personnel to Africa to support the development of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Furthermore, the Partnership Action for Agriculture and Livelihoods is another action under the partnership, in which China would be providing Africa with emergency food assistance, building standardised agriculture demonstration areas, and creating at least one million jobs for Africa.