Xi pledges an additional 1 bn COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa

CHINA: President Xi Jinping on Monday said China will provide an additional 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to Africa besides setting up a China-Africa cross-border yuan centre to provide African financial institutions with a credit line of $10 billion.

The move aims to help the African Union achieve its goal of vaccinating 60% of the African population by 2022, Xi said.

“The additional 1 billion doses include 600 million as donation and 400 million to be provided through such means as joint production by Chinese companies and relevant African countries,” Xi said during a speech given via video link to the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Monday.

In addition, China will undertake 10 medical and health projects for African countries, and send 1,500 medical personnel and public health experts to Africa, Xi said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China would encourage its companies to invest no less than $10 billion in Africa over the next three years, Xi said.

The pledge to provide 1 billion vaccines to African countries is in addition to the donation of 100 million doses of Covid vaccines to be given to developing countries by the end of 2021 that Xi had announced said during his September speech to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries.

During his speech on Monday, Xi said China and Africa should stick to cooperation to fight the Covid pandemic, deepen pragmatic cooperation, promote green development, and safeguard equity and justice.

– CHINA PEOPLE’S DAILY