COMESA Secretary General, Sindiso Ngwenya, met the Heads of the China Development Bank and the China-Africa Development Fund in Lusaka on Monday, 22 November 2011 and discussed ways of cooperation especially in the area of infrastructure development and finance.
China Development Bank Chief Representative in Zambia Mr Li Yong, China-Africa Development Fund Representative in Zambia Mr Li Dongwei, China Development Bank Assistant to the Commissioner for International Cooperation Mr Xie Peng and Mr Tang Zhiyan from the Jidong Development Group expressed keen interest in working with the COMESA Secretariat and identify regional projects that can be supported.
Mr Ngwenya told the investors that COMESA feels that the private sector is missing in the current China-COMESA partnerships especially in the area of institutional capacity building and financing.
“The COMESA region is well endowed with natural resources, which we have not fully exploited. We need to put up good infrastructure and encourage competition in order to bring about development,” Mr Ngwenya said.
He briefed the Chinese delegation on the strong partnership that most COMESA countries are enjoying with China. For example, China is a shareholder in the PTA Bank, which is a COMESA institution; and the Export and Import Bank of China is also actively involved in most COMESA countries.
Mr Li Yong said the China Development Bank is happy to enter into various forms of cooperation with COMESA and so far they are actively involved in six COMESA countries providing finance, investment and financial advisory services.
The China-Africa Development Fund was launched in 2006, at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that China would undertake eight measures to forge a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership, strengthening bilateral cooperation in more areas and at a higher level. Amongst them was the measure to establish a China-Africa development fund, which will eventually reach US $5 billion, to encourage and support Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa.
The establishment of the China-Africa Development Fund embodies the principles of "enhancing friendship, treating each other as equals, extending mutual support; and promoting common development" in strengthening the ties between China and Africa.
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