China always important contributor to Africa's new ways of poverty alleviation: spokesperson

BEIJING -- China is always a staunch supporter in Africa's exploration of new paths to modernization and an important contributor to Africa's effort to find new ways of poverty alleviation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said here on Monday.

Spokesperson Lin Jian made the remarks at a regular press conference in response to a query regarding China-Africa poverty reduction cooperation, which African media and scholars think brings new hope to Africa for realizing food self-sufficiency, poverty reduction and better life.

Noting eliminating poverty is the common mission of mankind and common aspiration of the African people, Lin said that poverty reduction has always been an important part of China-Africa cooperation.

"Over the years, under the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests, we have taken active effort to implement the Program for Strengthening Cooperation on Poverty Reduction between China and the African Union, and carried out poverty reduction exchanges and cooperation under the framework of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which produced remarkable results," Lin said.

He mentioned that China has set up and implemented 47 poverty reduction and agricultural projects, trained close to 9,000 agricultural personnel, shared over 300 advanced and applicable technologies, and benefited over 1 million smallholders in Africa under the poverty reduction and agricultural development program.

Taking China's juncao technology as an example, Lin pointed out that this technology has enabled hundreds of thousands of local people to increase their income. Moreover, China's hybrid rice has helped increase the rice yields in many African countries from an average of 2 tonnes to 7.5 tonnes per hectare. Chinese experts are setting up demonstration villages of rice cultivation for poverty alleviation to help realize the dream that "every mouth has food and every pocket money".

Lin said that the agricultural cooperation parks and agricultural products processing plants set up by Chinese companies added much value to local agricultural products.

China also opened "green lanes" for African agricultural products which allowed the import of a number of quality African agricultural products to China. Under the initiative of "100 Companies in 1,000 Villages", Chinese companies in Africa rolled out 320 corporate social responsibility projects, benefiting over 10,000 villages and communities. China has also held several seminars on poverty reduction and development for African officials to share experience in poverty reduction, Lin said.

China-Africa cooperation also helps countries in the African continent advance the industrialization process and better stand on their own feet in economic growth, he said, adding that Nigeria's Lekki Free Trade Zone, the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, and other cooperation zones, which have the investment from China, make African countries a much stronger magnet for foreign investment, and formed industry clusters that took "made in Africa" worldwide.

China has also set up 17 Luban Workshops in 15 African countries, which improved local employment, Lin added.

"We stand ready to continue working with Africa at the upcoming 2024 FOCAC Summit to advance poverty alleviation and create a brighter future for the African people," said Lin.