China urges large-scale investment in Africa

China believes the time is right for large-scale investment in Africa, the country’s vice foreign minister announced on Monday. Yang Wenchang said that over the past few years the continent has made positive strides towards peace and stability. He was speaking at the UN Conference Centre in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, during a ministerial conference to bolster relations between Africa and China. He also said that both Africa and China should seize the opportunity to forge new relations ahead of a high level summit in Ethiopia next year. “Recent years have witnessed many positive changes in Africa,” he told ministers from 44 African countries attending the conference. He added that the birth of the New Partnership on African Development (NEPAD) and the newly formed African Union had created "favourable conditions" to fight poverty. He said it also provided China and African countries with good opportunities to further expand and deepen cooperation. Some 20 senior officials from China are attending the two day meeting which aims to draw up an agenda for the summit conference in Ethiopia in November next year. Kingsley Amoako, the head of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), echoed his comments and said that over the past few decades, China had shown a strong commitment to development in Africa. “In our view at ECA, Africa has much to gain by the development of a deeper, longer-term and stable partnership with China,” he stated.