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China and Africa developing much closer economic links together
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FOLLOWING ONE of the biggest gatherings of African heads of state and ministers outside of the continent for many years, their recent Beijing summit has confirmed a new and powerful relationship between a resurgent China and Africa. Trade is expected to hit $100bn a year by 2010 and a whole slew of new projects are in the pipeline.
The growing economic relationship between China and sub-Saharan Africa was confirmed by November’s grand meeting in Beijing. And the Sino-African summit has been heralded by the Chinese government as a breakthrough in relations between the two regions.
African leaders left the Chinese capital in no doubt that a major new source of foreign direct investment (FDI) had emerged. Chinese interest in the continent has widely been portrayed by sceptics as a campaign for hydrocarbons, but there are growing signs that the relationship could yield far more than just oil revenues for investment hungry African states.
At the meeting, the Chinese government promised to double its aid to African countries by 2009. Chinese officials have also revealed that the country’s import duty regime will be made more favourable to African exporters. The number of goods being able to enter the country duty free will be doubled, and the creation of development funds to build new hospitals and schools and train 15,000 African workers for skilled positions will be available.
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