China has doubled its financial aid and investment pledges to Africa and promised to waive the debt of the continent’s least-developed nations. President Xi Jinping announced USD60 billion in support as leaders from more than 50 African countries met in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The commitment comes on top of another USD60 billion announced at the summit three years ago. Xi said the financing would be in the form of government help as well as investment and funding by institutions and companies. It includes USD15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans – three times the amount pledged in 2015. Also promised are USD20 billion in credit lines, a USD10 billion fund for development financing and USD5 billion to finance imports from Africa. Chinese companies were also encouraged to make at least USD10 billion in investment in Africa in the next three years, Xi said.

President Xi Jinping said in his FOCAC summit keynote speech that China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development. On industrial promotion, Xi said a China-Africa economic and trade expo will be set up in China while Chinese companies are encouraged to increase investment in Africa. China will carry out 50 agricultural assistance programs, provide emergency humanitarian food aid amounting to CNY1 billion to African countries affected by natural disasters, and send 500 senior agricultural experts to Africa.

Xi also announced that China would waive the debt of the poorest African countries. In defense of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) President Xi said China attached no political strings to its investments in Africa under the initiative; nor did it interfere in the internal affairs of African countries. “Only the people of China and Africa have the right to comment on whether China-Africa cooperation is doing well,” Xi said. “No one should deny the significant achievement of China-Africa cooperation based on their assumptions and speculation.” Addressing the summit, Rwandan President and African Union Chairman Paul Kagame said a stronger Africa was an opportunity for investment, “rather than a problem or a threat”. “Our growing relationships with China do not come at anyone’s expense,” he added. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the meeting in Beijing “refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa, as our detractors would have us believe”. But he added that China and Africa should work towards a more balanced trade relationship.

Risk management will be crucial for any Chinese investment in Africa, Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (ADB) said. He denied that Africa was caught in a debt trap brought on by Chinese spending on infrastructure. There are fears many African nations might struggle to repay the Chinese debt used to build expensive infrastructure projects, allowing Beijing to take control of strategic assets. Adesina said Africa needed infrastructure investment from China to help bridge a financial gap of between USD68 billion and USD108 billion a year for the continent to keep up a development pace similar to China’s decades ago, and to be competitive.