China has taken concrete measures to ensure that the decisions reached at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum -- Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000 are acted upon as agreed, a senior Chinese official said.

Ji Peiding, deputy foreign minister, said at a news briefing here Tuesday that the two documents, the Beijing Declaration and the Sino-African Cooperation Guidelines for Economic and Social Development, passed at the conference last October serve as the framework for Sino-African relations in the new century.

A national conference on Sino-African ties was held soon after the forum to address the issue of strengthening the bilateral cooperation, especially economic and trade ties, Ji said.

China established a follow-up action committee to implement the decisions made at the conference.

China and African countries have agreed to hold a senior officials' meeting in two years and a ministerial-level meeting in three years to evaluate the progress, Ji said.

China has also taken steps to exempt the debts of some of the most debt-ridden and under-developed African countries, the deputy foreign minister noted. He added that China exempted part of debts of Uganda during Vice President Hu Jintao's visit to the country in January.

Sun Guangxiang, deputy minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said that the Chinese government will work actively to promote the trade and economic ties between China and African countries.

He said that the Chinese government encourages two-way trade between China and Africa and will introduce more policies to effect the support to Sino-African trade within the rules of the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese government will also encourage big Chinese companies to invest in Africa and hopes the China's investment in Africa will rise substantially in one or two years, Sun said. He noted that the government will also expand its cooperation with African countries in the area of human resources and try to provide more useful information to companies engaged in Sino- African trade and economic activities.

After the news briefing, Ji and Sun, the co-chairmen of the follow-up action committee, met with diplomatic envoys of African countries in Beijing to discuss how to better carry out the documents of the China-Africa Forum.

(Xinhua 02/06/2001)