China Provides $58 Billion Aid To 166 Countries: Report

China Provides $58 Billion Aid To 166 Countries: Report,

BEIJING:  China has provided about USD 58 billion in development aid to 166 countries and international organisations over the past 60 years, a white paper issued on Thursday said. According to the white paper titled "The Right to Development: China's Philosophy, Practice and Contribution," the

world's current second largest economy has trained more than 12 million personnel from developing countries, and dispatched over 600,000 people to aid development in other countries.

Among them, 700 have given their lives in the course of these programmes.

The white paper noted that China had absorbed about 23 per cent of exports from the world's least developing countries since 2008. It said that China will set up a South-South Cooperation Fund to improve economic growth and standards of living in the developing countries.

It will also increase its investment in the least developing countries, write off certain countries' debts, establish an International Development Knowledge Centre, and further the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure and trade network proposed by China in 2013, the white paper said.

In the next five years, China will implement six "One Hundred Programmes" targeting developing countries - namely 100 poverty reduction programmes, 100 agricultural cooperation programmes, 100 trade aid programmes, 100 eco-protection and climate change programmes, 100 hospitals and clinics and 100 schools and vocational training centers, it said.

One hundred and twenty thousand training opportunities in China and 150,000 scholarships will be made available to developing countries, and 500,000 vocational technical personnel will be trained for developing countries, it added.