国内英语新闻:Decade-old China-Africa Cooperation Forum yields abundant fruits

Big progress in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been made over the past 10 years, partly owing to the FOCAC. China's grant assistance, zero-interest loans and preferential loans to Africa all increased by a wide margin. By the end of 2009, China had canceled more than 300 zero-interest loans owed by 35 heavily-indebted needy countries and least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa.

Compare to the year 2000 when the forum was first set up, the China-Africa bilateral trade volume boosted from 10.6 billion U.S. dollars to more than 100 billion U.S. dollars this year, an annual growth rate of over 30 percent, making China Africa's largest trading partner. The Chinese government also launched several initiatives to balance the bilateral trade that African countries' exports to China also grew rapidly, from 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 43.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2009.

In July 2010, to further open up China's market to Africa, China decided to exempt the tariffs of 60 percent of the exported items from 26 LDCs in Africa. The number of export items to China receiving zero-tariff treatment from African LDCs increased from the previous 478 to over 4,700.

Within three years after 2010, 95 percent of the export items from all of African LDCs having diplomatic ties with China will receive zero-tariff treatment gradually. In addition to the growth of trade, China and African countries have also carried out pragmatic and efficient cooperation in infrastructure construction, energy, agriculture, finance, health and other areas.

Within the framework of FOCAC, China's business activities in Africa have greatly boosted local economies and infrastructure, created jobs and improved people's living conditions. By the end of 2009, almost 2,000 Chinese firms have started doing business in African countries and created about 300,000 jobs. Their direct investments in the continent grew from 200 million U.S. dollars in 2000 to 1.44 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, an increase of nearly six times.

Africa's direct investment in China, on the other hand, increased from 280 million to 1.31 billion during that period. So far Africa is China's fourth biggest overseas investment destination. China's contracted projects in Africa accumulatively had amounted to 205.2 billion dollars by August 2010. Besides, Chinese companies have built some 60,000 km of roads and power stations with a total generating capacity of 3.5 million kw in Africa.

According to a report from the African Development Bank (AfDB) published this September, Chinese investments have increased yearly by an average of 46 percent over the last decade, mainly targeted to water, transport, electricity and information and communication technologies.

The report stresses the vital contribution China is making to Africa's infrastructure, cited that more than 35 African countries are engaged with China in infrastructure financing.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also part of China's increasing involvement in Africa's infrastructure, said the report. China's contribution to this sector in Africa generally takes the form of equipment supply and it has supplied nearly 3 billion dollars into this sector.