Xi Jinping promises to get another 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Dakar: President Xi Jinping said that China will provide another 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Africa and encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than US$10 billion (US$14 billion) in the African continent in the next three years.

The country has provided nearly 200 million doses of Chinese-made vaccines to Africa. As people are increasingly worried about the spread of the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus that was first discovered in South Africa, the vaccination rate in Africa has fallen behind.

Xi Jinping said that 600 million doses are donations, and 400 million doses will be provided through other methods such as joint production by Chinese enterprises and relevant African countries. He said that China will also build 10 health projects in Africa and send 1,500 health experts.

In a video-linked speech at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi Jinping stated that a China-Africa cross-border renminbi center will be established to provide African financial institutions with a credit line of US$10 billion, but he did not provide further details.

China will provide US$10 billion in trade financing to support African exports, build economic and trade cooperation zones, and build China-Africa industrial parks.

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The announcement comes as China’s infrastructure-for-commodity transactions have been criticized. Some experts claim that these transactions have burdened the country with unsustainable debt. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently reviewing a $6 billion deal with Chinese investors, fearing that it will not benefit Congo enough.

The “Belt and Road” initiative, which Chinese institutions finance major infrastructure projects in mainly developing countries, has slowed: Bank of China’s financing of infrastructure projects in Africa has fallen from US$11 billion in 2017 to US$3.3 billion in 2020. Baker McKenzie, an international law firm.

US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said during a visit to four countries in the region last week that Washington is pushing for cleaner transactions without unsustainable debt.