China's direct investment in Africa over the last seven years amounted to US$6.64 billion, a senior researcher with the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

Addressing a seminar prior to the 2007 Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of African Development Bank Group to be held in Shanghai from May 16 to 17, Lu Bo classified China's investment in Africa into three categories: aid, external-trade-oriented projects and raw materials development.

According to Lu, China carried out more than 800 aid projects over the past five decades, including 137 agricultural projects and 133 infrastructure construction projects.

Since 2000, Lu said, Chinese enterprises had contracted to build in Africa more than 6,000 kilometers of highways, 3,000-plus km of railroads and eight large and mid-sized power stations.

Last year, 31 percent of China's offshore contracted engineering projects came from Africa, Lu said.

In the 1990s, China launched more than 200 trade companies and distribution centers in Africa. Since 2000, it set up more than 100 processing trade projects there, Lu added.