China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has announced his country's plans to offer more than $10 billion in preferential export credits and concessional foreign aid loans to African governments over the next three years.

The loans, announced at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Egypt in November, are part of a raft of eight new Chinese initiatives in Africa. These include a wide range of health- and technology-related initiatives such as the China-Africa Science and Technology Partnership (CASTEP) and a $73 million provision for pharmaceuticals and health care (including malaria treatment and the training of 3,000 doctors and nurses).

Dynastic donor: Wen Jiabao Credit: Newscom

On 25 November, the Chinese government announced the first donation toward CASTEP: more than $100,000 for equipment to be shared between researchers in Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco and Niger.

According to the Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, CASTEP is intended to include 100 joint scientific projects between Africa and China and the establishment of research positions in China for postdoctoral fellows from Africa.

“Although the West does invest a lot in health in Africa, it is in foreign aid transfers. HIV/AIDS and malaria programs soak up the bulk of this,” says Deborah Brautigam, who studies international development at the American University in Washington, DC. Part of the CASTEP plan also includes China giving laboratory equipment to African countries to upgrade their research facilities. Chinese scientists and engineers will also offer technical guidance to African scientists. The loans are also intended to build science parks in Africa. Brautigam explained one impetus behind the loans: “Chinese companies are heading toward becoming multinationals such as in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Africa is a good training ground for them.”

Michael Jennings of the University of London also says that the interests of the Chinese government are clearly strategic. According to him, the country “sees its offer of condition-free aid and other inputs as a rival to Western aid, which tends to be linked to conditions around good governance and human rights.”