China to Help Africa Modernise Agriculture
CHINA - The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, has announced that China is starting major operations to help people in Africa modernise agriculture, among other cooperation projects.The development initiatives will be provided with 60 billion US dollars from China, including aid, interest-free loans and loans with favourable credit terms, and the plans will be rolled out over the coming three years.
In order to help Africa accelerate agricultural modernisation, China will carry out agricultural development projects in 100 African villages to raise rural living standards as part of the plans, China's national Xinhua news agency has reported.
China will also send 30 teams of agricultural experts to Africa, and establish a "10+10" cooperation mechanism between Chinese and African agricultural research institutes, he added.
"China is greatly concerned about the poor harvest caused by El Nino in many African countries and will provide one billion yuan (156 million dollars) of emergency food aid to the affected countries," Mr Xi said.
The big funding package also covers the areas of industrialisation, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.
"China-Africa relations have today reached a stage of growth unmatched in history," Mr Xi said. "Let's join hands... and open a new era of China-Africa win-win cooperation and common development."