China’s president pledges $50 billion to fund African development

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday more than US$50 billion in financing for Africa over the next three years, telling an annual summit of African leaders that Beijing was willing to provide more.

In a keynote speech to the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, Xi called for “an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era,” China’s Xinhua News Agency said. 

He proposed a funding plan to “cover the areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green development and common security,” it reported on Thursday.

Xi told the summit in Beijing China would provide 360 billion yuan (US$50.7 billion) in funding, including 210 billion yuan ($29.6 billion) in loans and 80 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in aid, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said, adding that China would encourage investment of at least 70 billion yuan ($9.9 billion) in Africa.

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More than 50 African heads of state are attending the summit, which runs until Friday. 

The gathering includes meetings on state governance, industrialization and agricultural modernization, peace and security, and high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the organizers said, referring to China’s global infrastructure initiative, launched in 2013.

Since the turn of the century, Chinese companies have helped build more than 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of roads, about 1,000 bridges, almost 100 ports and 66,000 kilometers of power lines, Chinese state media reported.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner, with 20% of African exports heading to China, and 16% of Africa’s imports coming from there, according to the International Monetary Fund, or IMF.

China is also Africa’s biggest bilateral creditor. Its share of total sub-Saharan African external public debt rose from less than 2% before 2005 to about 17% percent in 2021, the IMF said.

Critics say China ensnares poorer countries in “debt trap” diplomacy and it wields most of the power in its partnerships.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, who is attending as a special guest, told the summit, “China’s remarkable record of development – including on eradicating poverty – provides a wealth of experience and expertise,” according to the AFP news agency.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.