Republic of Congo president hails China's aid to Africa development

Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou N'Guesso has hailed China's pledge to support Africa's development.

The president was speaking to media over the weekend in Brazzaville after coming back from the Johannesburg Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which he termed as historic.

"In recent years, we have seen that China is on the ground, providing massive support to development efforts in African countries. There are statistics to prove this, the projects are visible, from one country to another," Sassou N'Guesso said, adding the Brazzaville airport was constructed through Chinese support.

He said that during the recently concluded FOCAC summit in South Africa, both China and Africa expressed the political will to raise their cooperation to a higher level.

He hailed China's pledge announced at the summit to offer 60 billion U.S. dollars of funding support, including interest free loans and preferential loans, to African countries in the next three years.

"This funding support to Africa will promote construction of basic infrastructure, industrialization, modernization of agriculture, education and training," he said.

In terms of security, China earlier pledged to provide 60 million dollars for the African Union to help it reinforce its capacity in the area of peace and security on the continent.

Sassou N'Guesso further lauded China's support to Africa with regards to reforms at the United Nations (UN).

Africa is pushing for reforms of the UN system, in a bid to allow the continent to have a place within the UN Security Council members with a veto power.

"On this position, Africa has always had the support of China," Sassou N'Guesso said. Endit