Foreign and Military Affairs

Wen: China to assist poor Portuguese-speaking countries

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-13 21:24

Wen: China to assist poor Portuguese-speaking countries

East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta (L-R), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates attend the opening ceremony of the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries in Macao, Nov 13, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

MACAO - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced Saturday that China will launch a series of measures between 2010 and 2013, which were aimed at helping boost the development of less-developed Portuguese-speaking countries.

Wen announced the measures when delivering his speech at the opening ceremony of the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries here in Macao on Saturday.

Under the new measures, financial institutions from the Chinese mainland and Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will set up a $1-billion development fund for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, in a bid to push forward the financial cooperation between the two sides.

The Chinese government will also provide those African and Asian Portuguese-speaking countries that participated in the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum with 1.6 billion yuan ($242 million) worth of loans on favorable terms within a bilateral framework.

The new measures will also see China provide equipments, technical personnel, etc. to the countries, supporting a bilateral agricultural cooperation with each of the African and Asian Portuguese-speaking countries that participated in the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum.

Sponsored by China's Ministry of Commerce and hosted by the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), the forum was created in Macao in 2003, with the joint participation of seven Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Timor-Leste.

Aside from the financial and agricultural assistance, China will also help train 1,500 officials and technical personnel from the above-mentioned countries, give full support to the setting up of a training center affiliated to the Forum in the Macao SAR, and provide government-sponsored scholarships, lasting for one year, to 1,000 students from the above-mentioned countries who study in China.

In terms of medical assistance, China will also provide 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) worth of medical equipments to the African and Asian Portuguese-speaking countries that participated in the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum.

The "eight brothers" of the Forum are at different stages of development, and it is the common responsibility of all the Forum members to help the less-developed Portuguese-speaking countries expedite development and lift themselves from poverty, Wen said in his speech.

Since the creation of the Forum in 2003, China has made great efforts to assist the development of the less-developed Portuguese-speaking countries.

A total of 3.56 billion yuan ($539 million) has been paid by the Chinese government in the form of different types of aids to Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Timor-Leste, and China also discharged these countries from paying 230 million yuan ($34.8 million) worth of due government interest-free debts, according to the figures from the Chinese government.

In the past years, China also helped complete a series of construction projects, including dams, stadium and hospitals, etc., in the above-mentioned countries.

Meanwhile, cooperation between the two sides has gradually expanded from economic and trade fields to education and culture, etc., and cooperation in human resource development has been greatly strengthened.

Up to now, China has held more than 200 training programs for Portuguese-speaking countries, which successfully trained over 2,100 officials and technique personnel for the countries.

Referring to future cooperation, Wen emphasized that the two sides should expand bilateral trade scale, striving to reach a total of $100 billion of trade volume in 2013; push forward two-way investment; actively explore new fields of cooperation; and fully exert the role of Macao as a platform for and link between the two sides.

The third Ministerial Conference of the Forum was graced for the first time by the heads of state and government, and it has become a unique opportunity to promote the trade and investment development between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, said Jose Socrates, prime minister of Portugal, in his speech delivered at the opening ceremony.

No one should let go such an opportunity, Socrates added.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) greets Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates during the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries in Macao, Nov 13, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]