Boosting African development is topic at Beijing financial meeting

Chinese major financial institutions introduced financial products and instruments to representatives from African countries on Monday and discussed how to better use China's financing to boost economic development.

The representatives were in Beijing attending the Dialogue between Executives of Chinese Financial Institutions and African Coordinators of the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit.

Liu Yong, chief economist of China Development Bank, said that China would provide strong financial support for high-quality economic development of Africa. Both sides should continue to expand cooperation in the financial field and constantly upgrade the level of cooperation.

In 2018, the trade volume between China and Africa reached $204.2 billion, up 20 percent than that of the previous year. China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years, he said.

He added that African countries could use China's experiences, technologies and funds, combined with their own abundant human resources, to improve the livelihood of people in Africa, and to inject new energy into the acceleration and efficiency of China-Africa cooperation.

Zhang Xuguang, executive vice president of China Development Bank, said that by the end of 2018, the bank had provided a total of more than $60 billion in financing to nearly 500 projects in 43 African countries, in sectors that include infrastructure, energy, transportation and agriculture. He said the bank will continue to provide sustainable financing to African countries and develop more financial products based on China's experiences and African countries' specific situations.

Gbehzohngar Milton Findley, Liberia's minister of Foreign Affairs, said that investment is an important way to improve people's lives, and he would like to focus on successful stories about projects and programs using financing to do so.

"It is the right direction we are moving towards implementing projects and programs between China and Africa, and that is the lives of people being impacted," he said.

He added that for Liberia, infrastructure, agriculture and communications are main sectors that he would like to see a lot of improvement and increased cooperation with China.