China to lend USD 20 billion to Africa

China's President Hu Jintao offered USD 20 billion in development loans for Africa over the next three years at the opening of a Sino-African ministerial forum in the Chinese capital Thursday. The line of credit would support "infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and small- and medium-sized enterprises," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying at the fifth ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation being held in Beijing Thursday and Friday. Trade between China and Africa has risen tenfold in less than a decade, the official China Daily reported Thursday, averaging 33.6-per-cent growth a year in the last decade. China surpassed the United States as Africa's largest trading partner in 2009, with Sino-African trade hitting 166.3 billion dollars in 2011, up 28 per cent on the previous year, according to Ministry of Commerce data.