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Nairobi. – Overcoming Africa’s debt challenges will benefit not only the continent, but also its partners in Asia, and the world economy as a whole, participants at a webinar to promote the 2021 African Economic Outlook among Asian audiences have said.
The webinar, which was held last week and whose official report was released yesterday, is the second such webinar for the region, following the successful launch of the Asia 2020 African Economic Outlook webinar last year. The report, titled “2021 African Economic Outlook for Asian Audiences”, underscored the importance of the Asian stakeholders to Africa given that the region is becoming an increasingly important source of Africa’s external debt.
Delivering the keynote speech at the event, Khaled Sherif, the vice-president for regional development, integration and business delivery at the African Development Bank, said bilateral loans from the bank’s four non-regional member countries in Asia which are China, India, Japan and South Korea, represented more than 15 percent of the continent’s total external debt at the end of 2019.
During a panel discussion in the webinar, Jingying Sun, the deputy chief of staff at the National Institute for Global Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said China has been actively engaged in international debt relief efforts, such as the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the Common Framework. – China Daily
“The total debt service payments suspended by China amount to $ 1.35 billion, with 23 African countries benefiting from the initiative. Not more than 5 percent of special drawing rights of the International Monetary Fund is currently allocated to Africa and the continent could recycle that of rich countries, including Asian economies,” Sun said.
China is the biggest bilateral creditor to Africa, followed by bondholders, the World Bank.– China Daily.
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