Source: CGTN    Published: 2018-9-4

China's 60-billion-US-dollar financial support to African countries will be invested in eight major fields. Apart from familiar areas like infrastructure and connectivity, the money will also go to green development.

Professor Wang Yiwei from the School of International Studies at Renmin University told CGTN that China-Africa cooperation is more market-oriented than government-driven. He said Chinese investment will help promote long-term development of the continent.

Professor Wang also pointed out the concern of China dragging Africa into a "debt trap" is ridiculous. He said China's investment ranks only fourth in Africa, after the US, the UK and France, adding that China actually needs to invest more.

He also compared China's investment portfolio to the West, saying that China focuses more on long-term, sustainable growth instead of commodity trade, like the West does.

Some Western analysts are skeptical about China's projects in Africa, accusing the Chinese government of dragging Africa into a "debt trap." In response to that, Professor Wang gave the example of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway. The big project contributed a 1.5 percent growth rate to the country's economic figures. It will also benefit six West African countries by increasing their connectivity with the rest of the world.

Wang Yiwei is a senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.