China Issues white Paper on Foreign Aid

China has issued its first-ever white paper presenting an overall picture of its foreign aid activities during the past 60 years. In a press conference held this (Tuesday) morning, Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying introduced more detail about the country's aid work. Zhang Mengyuan has the story.

China started to provide foreign aid in 1950. According to the white paper, by the end of 2009, China had offered aid to 161 countries and more than 30 international and regional organizations. The white paper introduces China's foreign aid policy, financial resources available, their distribution and management and China's cooperation in international activities.

He Wenping, Director of African Studies from China's Academy of Social Sciences, says the white paper has special meaning.

"China's foreign aid, especially in Africa, is growing very fast. In some areas, the aid from China is even bigger than that from some big international organizations like the World Bank. People in other countries are wondering about the operation of these projects, and some negative reports have emerged. The white paper provides an authoritative explanation of China's work, and meets the international society's need in understanding it."

As western countries complain that some of their aid was defalcated in aid projects, it is questioned if China has similar worries. Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying elaborates.

"China cooperates with the local governments in the whole process of aid in project construction and operation. I can tell responsibly that no corruption cases have been discovered so far. If any such incidents happen, the Chinese government and its judicial departments will chastise those who are held responsible strictly according to the law of China and the recipient countries."

Fu Ziying claims that China's assistance to other countries is South-South cooperation and is mutual help between developing countries with no political conditions attached. He says besides infrastructure construction, new aid methods will be adopted.

"With future aid, we will introduce more technology to make projects more sustainable. More grants will be given to help more countries with heavy debts, those extremely underdeveloped countries and some small island countries. We will also share experiences with other countries to make our projects more effective."

Education, medication, and manufacturing projects that can provide employment opportunities to locals are recommended by experts in order to achieve sustainable development in recipient countries and improve local people's lives.

For CRI, I'm Zhang Mengyuan.