China, Africa ink 16 deals worth $1.9 bln
Source: Reuters
By Chen Aizhu BEIJING, Nov 5 (Reuters) - China and Africa signed 16 agreements on Sunday worth a total of $1.9 billion, the official Xinhua news agency reported, as Beijing seeks to build its influence in the resource-rich continent. The deals, inked between 12 Chinese firms and African governments and companies, followed Chinese President Hu Jintao's pledge on Saturday to offer $5 billion in loans and credit, and to double aid to Africa by 2009. Delegates from nearly 50 African nations have descended on Beijing for a weekend summit aimed cementing trade ties between the under-developed continent and China. Xinhua said the deals agreed on Sunday involved 11 African countries and covered areas such as infrastructure, telecoms and technological equipment, mineral resource development and insurance. No further details were available. China, the world's fourth-largest economy and second-largest energy user, is keen to secure oil, gas and mineral resources from Africa, to fuel its rapid, raw-material-intensive economic expansion. But the summit is largely about handshakes and banquets, and is being seen as an opportunity for Beijing to prove its credentials at hosting a major event ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. The city has rolled out the red carpet for some 1,700 delegates and hundreds of journalists at the summit, and introduced strict traffic measures, heightened security and spruced up roads and tourist sites. TRADE TO DOUBLE China's trade with Africa is expected to top $50 billion this year, and Premier Wen Jiabao, in a speech to a China-Africa business forum on Saturday, called for the trading partners to expand this to $100 billion by 2010. China has signed a preliminary deal for Chinese state energy giant Sinopec Group to explore for oil and gas in Liberia, as Beijing extends its reach beyond leading African oil producers Angola, Nigeria and Sudan. Africa now supplies a third of China's crude oil imports. Chinese oil firms were also close to entering more oil and gas blocks in Nigeria after the third-largest producer firm CNOOC Ltd <0883.HK> paid $2.7 billion in April for a 45 percent stake in a major oilfield there. Ghana's energy minister has said it was close to reaching a $600 million deal with China's Sino Hydro Corporation to build a 400 megawatt hydroelectric dam in the north of the country. A Chinese consortium recently signed a $3 billion iron ore deal in Gabon, which includes extending a railway and building a bulk commodities and container port. Outlining his aid plans on Saturday, Hu said China would provide $3 billion in preferential loans and $2 billion in preferential buyer's credits to Africa, and also double its 2006 assistance to Africa by 2009 in an effort to forge a new strategic partnership and strengthen cooperation in more areas and at a higher level. China would also forgive all interest-free loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the most heavily indebted and underdeveloped African nations, Hu added, without elaborating.
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