国内英语新闻:China proposes measures to assist less-developed Portuguese-speaking countries

Aside from the financial and agricultural assistance, China will also help train 1,500 officials and technical personnel from the above-mentioned countries, give full support to the setting up of a training center affiliated to the Forum in the Macao SAR, and provide government-sponsored scholarships, lasting for one year, to 1,000 students from the above-mentioned countries who study in China.

In terms of medical assistance, China will also provide 10 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars) worth of medical equipments to the African and Asian Portuguese-speaking countries that participated in the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum.

The "eight brothers" of the Forum are at different stages of development, and it is the common responsibility of all the Forum members to help the less-developed Portuguese-speaking countries expedite development and lift themselves from poverty, Wen said in his speech.

Since the creation of the Forum in 2003, China has made great efforts to assist the development of the less-developed Portuguese- speaking countries.

A total of 3.56 billion yuan (539 million dollars) has been paid by the Chinese government in the form of different types of aids to Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Timor- Leste, and China also discharged these countries from paying 230 million yuan (34.8 million U.S. dollars) worth of due government interest-free debts, according to the figures from the Chinese government.

In the past years, China also helped complete a series of construction projects, including dams, stadium and hospitals, etc. , in the above-mentioned countries.

Meanwhile, cooperation between the two sides has gradually expanded from economic and trade fields to education and culture, etc., and cooperation in human resource development has been greatly strengthened.