The annual board meeting of the African Development Bank will be held in Shanghai on May 16 and 17, said a spokesman of the bank in Beijing on Wednesday.

Eric Chinje, director of communications, said the event would send a powerful message that Africa and China were strengthening their partnership of mutual benefit and cooperation.

"There is a renewed determination by the leaders of both sides to reinforce relations at all levels, economic, cultural and trade relations, and what we are seeing now is different, in the sense that it is based on the new principle of mutual advantage and a win-win formula," said Chinje.

The meeting will follow the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum held in November.

It will be the first time for the annual board meeting of the ADB to be held in Asia, and the second time outside Africa. In 2001, the bank's annual board meeting was held in Spain.

Chinje said People's Bank of China president Zhou Xiaochuan would chair the meeting, which is to be attended by finance ministers and governors of the central banks of member states, as well as representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other regional development finance organizations and non-governmental organizations.

The meeting will focus on infrastructure construction in Africa, regional integrity and poverty relief.

Founded in 1964, the African Development Bank has 77 members from Africa, America, Europe and Asia. China became a member in 1985.

Source: Xinhua