China Basically Fulfills Debt-relief Promise for Africa

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 27, 2002

China Basically Fulfills Debt-relief Promise for Africa

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China has basically reduced and exempted 10 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion US dollars) worth of debt owed by African countries to China, a pledge made by China two years ago, a Chinese official said Thursday in Beijing.

Cheng Tao, director of the Department of African Affairs of the Foreign Ministry and secretary-general of the Chinese Follow-up Action Committee of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, made the remarks at the opening of the China-Africa Agricultural Investment and Cooperation Seminar.

Cheng explained that at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum ministerial conference in October 2000, China announced that it would reduce and exempt a total of 10 billion yuan worth of debt that African countries owed to China within two years.

Upon conclusion of that conference, Cheng said, China worked out a debt-relief list covering 32 African countries.

So far, 31 of them, with the exception of Somalia, a country with no authoritative central government since 1991, signed relevant agreements with China.

The Program for China-Africa Cooperation in Economic and Social Development, as well as the Beijing Declaration of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, endorsed at the ministerial conference two years ago, have defined orientations for the establishment of new China-Africa partnership based on the principles of a long-term stability, equality and mutual benefit in the 21st century, Cheng said.

Both the Chinese and African follow-up action committees have made remarkable achievements in this regard, Cheng said.

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