The past 60 years has seen China’s rise from a poor developing state to an increasingly important donor country. It has been boosting its contribution to international development as it promotes its economic power, a commentary on Xinhua News Agency notes.
China still has its share of development-related problems, but it has been, for the past six decades, deepening international cooperation as part of the global effort to achieve prosperity, the commentary says.
Chinese foreign aid is especially essential in a number of African countries, particularly Tanzania and Zambia, where it has implemented one of its largest overseas aid projects, Xinhua says. The Tanzania-Zambia railway, which was completed in 1976, plays a key role in the transportation of goods and people from Zambia to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. Zimbabwe and Kenya are also among the various Chinese aid recipients, according to Xinhua .
In addition to development assistance, China also provides humanitarian aid to countries affected by natural disasters and has granted debt relief to four countries since 2000.
“Over the past 60 years, China has been grappling with poverty and other various difficulties in its modernization. Although China has made significant achievements toward economic prosperity, it still shares many problems concerning development with other developing countries,” the commentary says.
But China appears to be addressing these problems better than most other developing countries. The country is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, according to Silvia Morimoto, who manages the United Nations Development Program office in China.
“China has achieved or over-achieved many (goals) ahead of time including poverty, hunger, illiteracy and under-five mortality rates, and it is hoped that China will achieve all the (goals) by 2015,” Morimoto said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
