Full Text: China's Foreign Aid (6)

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Full Text: China's Foreign Aid (6)

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-7-10 10:42:20

III. Promoting Economic and Social Development

China has actively helped other developing countries in infrastructure construction, and assisted their efforts in strengthening capacity building and trade development. China has also increased the amount of foreign assistance in environmental protection, helping the recipient countries realize economic and social development.

1. Improving Infrastructure

In light of the economic development of different countries, China arranges grants (aid gratis), interest-free loans and concessional loans in a well-proportioned manner to help recipient countries with the much needed infrastructure construction. From 2010 to 2012, China helped build 156 economic infrastructure projects. Exploring its advantages in technology, equipment and materials, and human resources, China effectively cut down investment costs for these projects while ensuring quality.

Supporting development of transport system. During the three-year period, China assisted the construction of over 70 transport projects, including roads, bridges, airports and ports. For example, China helped build the third section of the Sika Highway that connects Kenya's capital Nairobi to its economic hub Sika, thus making a contribution to the road network that links up Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Sri Lanka's Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, built with Chinese assistance, further improves the country's all-dimensional transport network, and plays a positive role in promoting links and communication between Sri Lanka and its neighboring areas.

Increasing energy supply capacity. China assisted the construction of more than 20 energy projects, including hydropower stations, thermal power plants, power transmission, transformation and distribution grids, and geothermal drilling projects. The Bui Hydropower Station built by China in Ghana boasts the capacity of hydroelectricity generation, farmland irrigation, fisheries development and local tourism. Its completion has not only powered economic and social development in Ghana, but also benefited other areas in Western Africa. The China-assisted power transmission, transformation and distribution grids in Dakar, Senegal now provide power to 150,000 local residents, effectively ensuring power supply to the city, which had been troubled by its ageing grid and sudden blackouts until recently.

Promoting the development of information-based societies. China assisted the building of over 60 IT-related projects, including optical cable telecommunication networks, e-government websites, and radio and television frequency modulation transmitters. The telecommunication projects assisted by China in Turkmenistan, Togo and Eritrea provide high-quality and steady telecommunication systems to these countries, and the number of users has grown exponentially. The optical cable transmission networks assisted by China in Cameroon and Tanzania have effectively promoted the application of fiber cables in African nations.

2. Strengthening Capacity Building

Believing in the ancient Chinese wisdom that "teaching one to fish rather than giving one fish," China shares its experience and technology with other developing countries through human resources and technical cooperation, as well as through volunteer service, to help other developing countries build their own professional teams and enhance their capacity for independent development.

Fast development in human resources cooperation. From 2010 to 2012, China held 1,579 seminars for foreign officials, inviting nearly 40,000 officials from the governments of other developing countries to China. The topics of the seminars covered economics and management, multilateral trade negotiation, politics and diplomacy, public administration, vocational education, and non-governmental organizations. China also held 357 training sessions for about 10,000 technical personnel from other developing countries in the areas of agriculture, health care, telecommunications, industry, environmental protection, disaster relief and prevention, and culture and sports. To help other developing countries improve the ability of their senior management personnel in the public sector, China organized, during the three years, 15 on-the-job academic education programs. Master's degrees in public administration, education, international relations and international media were granted to 359 officials from 75 developing countries.

Graphics shows China's human resources development cooperation from 2010 to 2012, according to a white paper on China's foreign aid issued by China's Information Office of the State Council on July 10, 2014. (Xinhua/China's Information Office of the State Council)

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