A package of measures on economic and trade cooperation, proposed by
President Hu Jintao at the Sunday-concluded Beijing Summit of Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation, offers Chinese private firms with unprecedented
opportunities to invest in Africa.
Zhao Jinping, deputy director of the foreign economy department under the
State Council Development and Research Center, made the remarks here Monday in
an interview with Xinhua.
At the two-day landmark summit, Hu announced that China will double aid,
provide 5 billion U.S. dollars of preferential loans and buyers' credits to
Africa and establish a China-Africa development fund, which will certainly
encourage private firms with capacity to invest in Africa, Zhao said.
Suo Zhanrong, president of the Huifeng group in north China's Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, said the governmental support injects new energy into private
firms, noting he was confident of prospects of Chinese medicines in African
market, as his group planned to increase Chinese medicine export to African
countries.
Sheng Jushan, general manager of the Guoji Group in central China's Henan
Province, said his company has just set up an economic cooperation zone in
Sierra Leone, which attracts about 20Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises.
China's Huawei Company, whose sales volume in sub-Sahara African countries
exceeded one billion dollars, has become the largest CDMA product provider in
the region, and submitted tax of 40 million dollars to African countries.
The Chunnan Group in eastern Jiangsu Province exports about 100,000
air-conditioners, washing machines and electric bikes to Africa annually.
Wang Jianping, president of the Hashan Company in eastern Zhejiang Province,
told Xinhua that after the summit, he decided to increase investment in Nigeria
from two million dollars to six million dollars so as to boost the development
of local shoemaking industry.
According to figures from the import and export bank of China, among the 800
Chinese enterprises that invest in Africa, only about 100 are state-owned
enterprises and the remaining are privately-owned.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission,
Ministry of Finance and National Development Bank are working on new policies
and detailed measures to facilitate China's investment in Africa, according to
sources.
China's private companies will play a larger role in expanding investment in
Africa, said Wang Licheng, vice president of the chamber of commerce on
Sino-African trade.