CHINESE aid spending in Pacific island countries (PICs) may fluctuate but the Chinese policies towards PICs will remain unchanged.
Newly-appointed Chinese ambassador to Fiji Zhou Jian said this when quizzed about fluctuating bilateral aid and development finance to PICs which totalled $US204 million ($F456.7m) in 2008, peaked at $US334m ($F747.7m) in 2016 and fell to $US188m ($F420.8m) in 2020.
“China will continue to help PICs overcome development bottlenecks and improve their sustainable self-development capacity,” he said.
“And I think that’s more important.” He said that a delegation from the China Development Co-operation Agency would be in Fiji next week.
“They will come to sign some new agreement with the new Government and to see how we can improve both countries economic co-operations. “We hope to know what Fiji’s priority development is and then we will try to meet the needs of the Fijian Government.”
Mr Jian also said a team of Chinese doctors would be arriving into the country next month to carry out free medical services for Fijians. While details on actual direct aid to Fiji from China for the past decade has been difficult to obtain, Fiji owes China a substantial amount in debt.
The Asian Development Bank, in its 2020-2021 annual debt report released by the Fijian ministry of economy in October 2021, said Fiji owed $924 million to the ADB. The report stated Fiji had an external debt of $2.4 billion (in 2021), out of which 38.5 per cent was owed to the ADB.
The report also stated Fiji owed the World Bank Group $643 million or 26.8 per cent of the total debt and Fiji owed the EXIM Bank of China $441 million while it owed the Japan International Co-operation Agency $288 million. The debt report stated the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was owed $103 million while $720,000 was owed to the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
