World Bank, China Looking at Co-Financing African Projects

(Bloomberg) -- The World Bank and China have held talks on how they can finance projects in Africa together, the lender’s vice president for the continent said.

“We think it’s a good thing the continent has different sources of financing,” Hafez Ghanem said in an interview Tuesday in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan. “In my discussions with the Chinese authorities, we were looking at how we can co-finance some projects together or to do parallel financing for some projects.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sept. 3 pledged debt relief to some poorer African nations and announced an additional $60 billion of loans and other financing to follow on a similar amount promised three years ago. In recent months, Beijing has faced criticism about its debt practices from countries ranging from Australia to India, with even some Chinese academics airing doubts at home.

“Our view is that Africa needs a lot of investment in infrastructure, education and health and we would like to encourage more and more countries to come and invest with us in Africa,” Ghanem said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Leanne de Bassompierre in Abidjan at ldebassompie@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Ana Monteiro, Michael Gunn

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