By Christel Odili
China will extend a total of 60 billion USD of financing to Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Monday.
The financing will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies, Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
The financing includes US$15bn of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, US$20bn of credit lines, the setting up of a US$10bn special fund for development financing and a US$5bn special fund to help finance imports from Africa. Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least USUS$10bn of investment in Africa over the next three years.
China decided to provide the funding support at FOCAC’s Johannesburg Summit to ensure the successful implementation of ten China-Africa cooperation plans adopted during the conference.
He also said that China will exempt certain African countries from outstanding debts incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese government loans due by the end of 2018. Xi also said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond.
Before the start of the two-day China-Africa summit President Xi Jinping told African counterparts and business leaders Monday that China’s investments on the continent have “no political strings attached”, even as Beijing is increasingly criticized over its debt-heavy projects abroad.
“China does not interfere in Africa’s internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa,” he said. “China’s cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development. Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects, but in places where they count the most.”