/ 9 February 2007

Chinese leader ends Mozambique visit

Chinese leader Hu Jintao on Friday left Mozambique for the Seychelles, the last stop on an African swing marked by Beijing's largesse and staunch rebuttal of criticism that it was plundering the continent. Hu on Thursday announced a debt waiver, cash grants and increased market access for goods from war-ravaged Mozambique.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao on Friday left Mozambique for the Seychelles, the last stop on an African swing marked by Beijing’s largesse and staunch rebuttal of criticism that it was plundering the continent.

Hu visited the Heroes’ Square with his Mozambican counterpart, Armando Guebuza, in the heart of seaside capital Maputo early on Friday to pay tribute to stalwarts of the country’s fight against former colonial master Portugal.

He also inaugurated an agriculture technology institute before leaving the country for the picture-postcard Indian Ocean Seychelles islands.

Hu on Thursday announced a debt waiver, cash grants and increased market access for goods from war-ravaged Mozambique, where a bitter 16-year civil conflict only ended in 1992.

”These pacts are concrete proof of our desire to develop pragmatic cooperation,” said Hu, the first Chinese president to visit this Southern African coastal nation.

No details of the amount of debt Mozambique owes Beijing were given.

Chinese businesses are at the vanguard of reconstruction efforts in Mozambique.

Although bilateral trade last year totalled a relatively modest $210-million, it was five times higher than the figure in 2001.

Mozambique has as yet largely untapped reserves of coal and natural gas — the kind of natural resources that China is trying to sniff out to fuel its booming economy.

As elsewhere in Africa, the balance of trade is heavily in Beijing’s favour with cheap, made-in-China clothing items filling Mozambique’s stores. At the moment, Mozambican exports to China are largely confined to wood, sugar and other agricultural products.

Hu, however, has consistently stressed throughout his tour that Africa has as much to benefit as China from the burgeoning relationship that has seen trade between Beijing and the continent triple in the past five years.

During a keynote speech in South Africa, which is China’s largest trading partner in Africa, Hu said his country would ”certainly not do anything harmful to the interests of Africa and its people”.

He said almost a century of foreign exploitation in China by Western powers had permanently scarred Beijing and therefore it is against any form of ”colonialism” or ”slavery”.

”China and Africa have extensive common ground and a fine tradition of cooperation on major international issues. It serves our shared interest to strengthen coordination in international affairs,” he said.

Hu is expected to announce grants and loans worth $10-million in the Seychelles islands.

He is due to hold talks with Seychelles President James Michel, and the two are expected to sign technical and economic cooperation agreements, notably on fisheries, tourism and investment promotion.

Hu began his eight-nation, 12-day tour of Africa, his third visit to the continent since taking office in 2003, in Cameroon on January 30. He went on to visit Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa. — Sapa-AFP