China honors its solemn commitment for China-Africa common development

III. What are the features of China-Africa investment cooperation? Some say that Chinese investors come to Africa for resources. What's your view on this?

Rapid growth of investment cooperation reflects complementarity between China and Africa in resources, markets and industrial structure. It shows that cooperation brings mutual benefits and win-win results to economic growth. This cooperation has the following features. First, it grows fast. The value of China's direct investment in Africa increased by 40 times to USD2.1 billion from 2001 to 2010. Second, it flows into many countries. Chinese investment goes to all African countries. Investments of over 2,000 Chinese companies flow into 50 African countries ranging from resource-rich countries like Angola to resource-poor ones like Mali. Third, it covers a wide range of sectors. Only 25% of Chinese investment in Africa goes to energy and mining sector while the remaining 75% goes to sectors such as finance, processing and manufacturing, construction, business services, agriculture and transportation, etc. Fourth, it involves diverse players. Aside from state-owned enterprises, private sector is becoming a new force for investment in Africa. In some African countries, over 50% of Chinese investors are private companies.

It is worth mentioning that when they invest in Africa, Chinese companies always observe international practices and market rules and participate in international competition and cooperation in a normal way. China-Africa investment cooperation is comprehensive and diverse, not limited to certain countries or specific sectors. The Chinese government has established effective platforms for Chinese companies to invest in Africa such as the China-Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Zones. In the years to come, we will continue to encourage and guide Chinese companies to expand their presence in deep processing of resources and other manufacturing industries, create more jobs for local people, engage in the development of local communities, pay attention to environment protection and integrate with local economy and society to achieve common sustainable development.

IV. China's per capita GDP still ranks around 100th in the world, what is the reason for China to have been expanding the scale of its aid to Africa in recent years?

China has provided some economic assistance to African countries for projects related to people's livelihood, human resource training and supply of goods and materials. The above-mentioned assistance was made to the best of China's capabilities and represented a rather small share of its GDP, which was well affordable for a developing country.

Development assistance is an important way for countries to give mutual support and achieve common development. It includes assistance of developed countries to developing countries and mutual assistance between developing countries. China's aggregate economy jumped to No. 2 in the world from relatively backward conditions, and this achievement is inseparable from the support and help of many countries including African ones. In the wake of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, some African countries which don't have much financial resources generously offered their assistance to China. Therefore, we will lend a helping hand to Africa within our capacity when we realize our own development. This manifests the traditional China-Africa friendship and the international morality and responsibilities and also contributes to a good environment for global development.

V. The fifth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will soon be held. How do you view the future of China-Africa trade and economic cooperation? Has China developed new ideas and measures to support Africa's development?

At present, China-Africa trade and economic relations have embarked on a new development phase, which calls for better-quality and higher-level cooperation that meets our respective development needs. We aim to maintain the scale and speed of our cooperation, expand cooperation into more areas, and avoid short-sighted actions and make good long-term plans for a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation as well as common development.

To this end, we will continue taking strong measures to support Africa's development. Specifically, we will continue our assistance to African countries with a focus on helping them improve people's welfare; we will expand two-way investment and financing cooperation, and encourage and support Chinese companies to invest in African manufacturing and services sectors in a bid to improve African countries' capability of independent development; and we will explore various cooperation approaches and financing instruments to support African countries in improving infrastructure conditions, and contribute to Africa's regional integration process.

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