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CHINESE Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming says the appreciation of the US dollar and the sluggish world economy has affected many currencies in the world, including the kwacha.
During a press briefing at the Chinese Embassy, Ambassador Yang hoped that the kwacha which had continued to depreciate could stabilize.
“The appreciation of the US dollar and the sluggish world economy has affected many currencies in the world. The Chinese currency depreciated to some extent but we took some measures to stabilize our own currency. Of course the kwacha has also been affected and it has been depreciating for some time. But I am very happy that for some days, it has been stabilizing and I hope that it will stabilise further,” said Ambassador Yang.
On the FOCAC summit, Ambassador Yang said statistics show that in 2014, trade between China and Africa exceeded US$220 billion and China’s investment stock in Africa surpassed US$30 billion, an increase of 22 and 60 times respectively over the figure in 2000 the year FOCAC was established.
Ambassador Yang said they believed the summit, which will be held on December 4 and 5 in South Africa will help to strengthen China-Africa mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, enhance the confidence of Africa itself and the international community in the development of Africa and attention to make more investment in Africa.
He said the share of China-Africa trade in Africa’s total foreign trade has increased from 3.82 per cent to 20.5 per cent.
“What is particularly noteworthy is China’s commitment to helping Africa break the two development bottlenecks of underdeveloped infrastructure and lack of human resources. The efforts have already made a big diference. By June 2015, over 3, 800 kilometers of railway and 4, 334 kilometers of roads have been either constructed or under construction in Africa with Chinese financing. More than 200 schools of various kinds have been established with Chinese assistance or financing. The Chinese government provides Africa with more than 7, 000 government scholarships each school year and holds over 100 multilateral and bilateral technical and management training programmes and senior officials’ workshops for Africa each year,” said Ambassador Yang.
