China Perspective
China urges rich countries to honor commitment to Africa aid
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-15 09:03
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UNITED NATIONS - China on Thursday called on developed countries to "expeditiously raise" their official development assistance (ODA) for Africa in order to meet the pledged targets of the international community and the actual needs of Africa.
The statement came as Wang Min, the Chinese deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, was taking the floor at the UN General Assembly in a meeting to discuss how to strengthen the partnership with Africa in order to promote development on the continent.
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"The developed countries should expeditiously raise their ODA level to 0.7 percent of their GNI (gross national income), further open their markets to the their African counterparts, reduce or waive the latter's debts, and increase technology transfer and investment so as to improve its capacity for independent development," he said.
Meanwhile, Wang also called for "respect for the self-determination right of the African countries."
"The African countries have made major headway through vigorous efforts to increase unity for greater strength, seek regional peace and stability, and bring about economic reinvigoration," he said.
"In providing assistance to Africa, the international community should show greater respect for its realities and the sentiments of its countries, further remove conditionalities, increase the predictability and transparency of such assistance, and redress the power imbalance between the donors and recipients," he said.
"Today, Africa faces both important opportunities and grave challenges in peace and development," Wang said.
Since the launching of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) nine years ago, with the vigorous support of the international community, the African countries have achieved great progress in such areas as infrastructure, agriculture, health and education, he said.
"Nevertheless, under the impacts of the financial, food and energy crises and of climate change, Africa still faces an uphill task in realizing the MDGs by 2015," he said, referring to the eight UN anti-poverty targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by its deadline of 2015.
"Today, Most of the regional hotspot issues that affect Africa's peace and stability are, in the final analysis, attributable to poverty and underdevelopment. China believes that development is the basis for the attainment of peace in Africa," he said. "The international community should increase its support for Africa and help it attain greater progress in the implementation of NEPAD and thus promote the stability and prosperity in Africa."