President Xi Ji Ping on Monday announced that China will provide a total of $60 billion in financial support to Africa.
The Chinese leader made the announcement in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in Beijing, China.
The fund, he said, would be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.
President Xi listed the financing to include 15 billion U.S. dollars of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, and 20 billion U.S. dollars of credit lines.
Others are the setting up of a 10-billion-U.S. dollars special fund for development financing and a 5-billion-U.S. dollars special fund for financing imports from Africa.
Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least 10 billion U.S. dollars of investment in Africa in the next three years.
China decided to provide the funding support at the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg summit to ensure the successful implementation of ten China-Africa cooperation plans adopted at the summit.
With the announcement, President Jinping said China has honoured its 2015 financing pledge to Africa. The financing has been either delivered or arranged, he added.
China, he said, would also expand its imports especially non-resource products from Africa.
