President Xi Jinping has said China does not invest in “vanity projects” in Africa. Rather he said his country is helping the continent build its infrastructure.
He pledged an extra $60billion for the continent’s development, as he opened a summit with African leaders in Beijing to boost relations.
China is the single largest bilateral financier of infrastructure in Africa. But critics warn that African nations have been going into unsustainable levels of debt with the Asian giant.
Mr Xi admitted there was a need to look at the commercial viability of some projects and make co-operation more viable.
“China’s cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development,” he told business leaders ahead of the opening of the two-day summit.
All African nations are represented at the summit, except for the tiny kingdom of eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland. It is the only African state to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
