China development bank to boost cooperation with Africa

China Development Bank (CDB) will continue to enhance financial cooperation with African countries, Yuan Li, vice president of CDB, has said.Addressing a forum on Chinese businesses in Africa held here Tuesday, Yuan said that as China’s biggest foreign investment and financing bank, CDB had provided various forms of financial support to more than 30 African countries as of February this year, with a credit balance of 16 billion U.S. dollars.The bank’s direct investment in Africa via the China-Africa Development Fund has reached 2 billion U.S. dollars, he added.According to Yuan, the bank’s investment and financing cooperation with Africa operate in a variety of fields, including agriculture, electric power, manufacturing, resource exploitation, communication, roads, aviation, ports, urban infrastructure and people’s livelihood.CDB has provided 700 million U.S. dollars in loans to small and medium-sized African companies since 2009, said Yuan.He said according to incomplete statistics, these loans generated 20,000 job opportunities in Africa and benefited 400,000 local farmers. They also marked a 400 million-U.S. dollar increase in the China-Africa trade volume.“CDB will work with its African partners to make new contributions to China-Africa common development,” he said.Meanwhile China’s trade and economic cooperation with Africa plays a positive role in the continent’s development, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman said Tuesday.China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa approached 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2012, with 3 billion U.S. dollars added to the total last year, according to MOC data.Such surging economic activities have aroused suspicions like those recently voiced by Nigerian central bank governor Lamido Sanusi, who wrote in the Financial Times that “Africa must shake off its romantic view of China and accept Beijing is a competitor as much as a partner and capable of the same exploitative practices as the old colonial powers.”