Senegal welcomes Chinese investment in agriculture

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-23 13:37

DAKAR -- The Senegalese government supports Chinese entrepreneurs' investment in Senegal's agricultural sector and will create favorable conditions for a win-win outcome, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said Tuesday.

He made the pledge when addressing a ceremony for issuing investment guidelines for a project on securing food supplies and grain harvests in the African country.

Foreign investment in Senegal's agriculture will facilitate the country's food sovereignty and self-support and contribute to the government's poverty-eradication efforts, said the president.

Wade also hailed the recent pact signed by the Senegalese authorities and a Chinese enterprise on sesame plantation cooperation, saying Senegal welcomes Chinese enterprises' investment in sesame plantation, as the product has been pretty popular at the international market in recent years especially in China, Japan, South Korea and some Arabian nations.

China has offered duty-free treatment to some products imported from the least developed countries in Africa since January 1, 2005, including sesame.