{"id":21628,"date":"2015-12-04T07:11:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T07:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/china-pledges-60bn-to-develop-africa\/"},"modified":"2015-12-04T07:11:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T07:11:33","slug":"china-pledges-60bn-to-develop-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/china-pledges-60bn-to-develop-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"China pledges $60bn to develop Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{China has announced $60bn (\u00a340bn) of assistance and loans for Africa to help with the development of the continent.}<\/p>\n<p>President Xi Jinping said the package would include zero-interest loans as well as scholarships and training for thousands of Africans.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese leader made the announcement at a major summit between China and Africa in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p>The momentum of rapid growth in Africa was &#8220;unstoppable&#8221;, Mr Xi told more than 35 African heads of state.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s President Jacob Zuma, who is joint host at the summit, welcomed Africa and China&#8217;s deepening partnership.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;China has become Africa&#8217;s largest trade partner, and Africa is now one of China&#8217;s major import sources and fourth largest investment destination. This partnership can only yield further positive results for Africa&#8217;s development,&#8221; Mr Zuma said.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s announcement of grants, loans and development funds was widely anticipated, although the figure exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this additional assistance is likely to be focused on infrastructure projects, to help boost economic development but more details on the deal are yet to emerge.<\/p>\n<p>President Zuma said that China and the African continent each made up a third of the world&#8217;s population, bringing the possibility of new markets and production possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps one of the biggest challenges African countries face is youth unemployment and leaders are under pressure to come up with development plans which create more jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a major slowdown at home, which has seen Chinese demand for African exports plummet &#8211; a vital source of foreign exchange earnings for the continent &#8211; the main message is that despite economic challenges, China&#8217;s commitment to Africa is long term.<\/p>\n<p>The two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) is the second time China has brought together African leaders since the forum was launched in Beijing in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>According to China&#8217;s official Xinhua news agency, the assistance over three years will focus on 10 areas, including industrialisation, the modernisation of agricultural, financial services, green development and peace and security.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Xi said this was his seventh visit to Africa and his second as Chinese president and on each trip he saw progress and change.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The late Nelson Mandela of South Africa once said: &#8216;We stand at the dawn of an African century, a century where Africa will take its rightful place among the nations of the world.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t agree more with this statement and I am convinced that African countries and people are embracing a new era that is truly theirs,&#8221; the Chinese leader said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-9589 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_87031931_87031929.jpg\" alt=\"Much of the financial assistance announced by President Xi is likely to focus on infrastructure projects \" \/><\/figure>\n<p>SOURCE:BBC:[China pledges $60bn to develop Africa->http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-35005048]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{China has announced $60bn (\u00a340bn) of assistance and loans for Africa to help with the development of the continent.} President Xi Jinping said the package would include zero-interest loans as well as scholarships and training for thousands of Africans. The Chinese leader made the announcement at a major summit between China and Africa in Johannesburg. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070613,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21628.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21628"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21628"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}