China pledges $60 billion for development in Africa

China’s President Xi Jinping told African presidents on Friday at a summit that his country would provide $60 billion over three years to fund development on the continent.

China’s economic growth has recently taken a dip, triggering a global commodities slump and forcing Beijing to slash investment in Africa by more than 40 percent in the first six months of this year.

Security now occupies a prominent place, along with business and culture, on the agenda of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac). Xi also promised to provide assistance to help upgrade African health care facilities, train hundreds of journalists and provide satellite reception in 10,000 African villages.

Liu Hongwu, director of the School of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University, said that the summit and Xi’s proposals are helping China-Africa cooperation “better link to Africa’s own pursuits for development, its own planning and mechanisms”.

But critics of this structure say that it allows those cash flows to come into Africa unregulated and allowing unelected leaders to maintain power.

“It (Focac) will guide future development of China and Africa”.

Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa welcomed the partnership with Africa’s biggest trading partner. “I don’t think we need to panic about fluctuations in trade volumes”, China’s special representative on African Affairs Zhong Jianhua said.

What China is doing in Africa is good for the sustainable development of the continent, he said, adding that Africa and China are partners working on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefits.

Sticking to that Chinese tradition of non-interference in local politics, Xi said on Friday: “China strongly believes Africa belongs to the African people and African problems should be handled by the African people”.

In the past 15 years, China-Africa trade has increased by 22 times, and China’s nonfinancial investment has surged sixtyfold.

Despite this, Mr. Xi’s visit to Africa displays a new invigoration of relations in the interests of both parties.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his African counterparts are expected to adopt new resolutions to revitalize bilateral cooperation between China and African states when the summit ends on Saturday afternoon.

“China-Africa cooperation in Industrialisation has delivered new fruits”, he explained, adding that “China fully supports African countries in removing the two major bottlenecks, namely backward infrastructure and inadequate personnel “. “So there is not an expectation that we in Africa are expecting handouts”.