China will reduce or cancel the debts of some heavily indebted and least developed African countries, Vice Foreign Trade Minister Sun Guangxiang announced Monday in Beijing.
Exact amounts of the debts exemption will be announced during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum - Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000, which is to open here tomorrow.
Sun said at the forum's first special press briefing this afternoon that foreign loans have constituted a heavy burden on some African countries.
He said though China is not one of the dominant creditors of Africa, it enjoys a traditional friendship with Africa and is willing to make efforts in relieving Africa's heavy burden.
Sun said African countries which have not established diplomatic ties with China are not among those to enjoy the exemption.
He said these include countries which have maintained so-called "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan, to whom China had provided interest-free loans in the past.
(People’s Daily 10/09/2000)
