Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced Sunday that his country will give 10 billion US dollar (50 milliarder DKR) in loans to African countries without any political strings attached.
The Africa loan package will include a 1 billion dollar special loan for small and medium-size African businesses, Wen said, adding that China will also cancel debts of some African countries.
The 10 billion dollar in preferential loans over the next three years would be used to develop infrastructure and social programs. The Chinese Premier said China will construct 100 new clean-energy projects on the continent and gradually lower customs duties on 95 percent of products from African states with which it has diplomatic ties.
– There have been allegations for a long time that China has come to Africa to plunder its resources and practice neo-colonialism. This allegation, in my view, is totally untenable (uholdbar), Wen stated.
He said that eight new Chinese policy measures aimed at strengthening relations with Africa were “more focused on improving peoples liveli-hoods”, underlining what he called Beijings “selfless” engagement in Africa.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
