President Xi Jinping said China would offer another one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to African countries and would encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $10 billion in Africa over the next three years.
BEIJING – President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China would offer another one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to African countries and would encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $10 billion in Africa over the next three years.
The pledge of additional vaccine doses – on top of the nearly 200 million that China has already supplied to the continent – comes as concerns intensify over the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus, known as Omicron, which was first identified in southern Africa.
In a speech given via video link at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi also said a China-Africa cross-border yuan centre would be set up to provide African financial institutions with a credit line of $10 billion, without giving further details.
China’s total imports from Africa, one of its key sources of crude oil and mineral supply, will reach $300 billion in the next three years, Xi said, adding that the two sides would co-operate in areas such as health, digital innovation, trade promotion and green development.
– REUTERS
