China supports all kinds of cooperation that could benefit Africa and it would like to work together with other countries and organizations in this endeavor, said a Chinese official in Yokohama Wednesday.

"China expects more and more countries to join the cooperation process for the African development," said Liu Guijin, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs, in an interview with Xinhua, "Such cooperation is beneficial to the African region."

Liu, also head of the Chinese delegation to the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) which opened in Yokohama Wednesday, said TICAD has made progress in its cooperation process and Japan's announced increase in its assistance to Africa is another contribution in the process.

The development of Africa is important to the world. "Without Africa's development, there would be no development of the world, and without peace in Africa, there would be no peace of the world," said Liu.

Liu said African nations have achieved remarkable progress in recent years in economic development and consolidation of peace and stability. The continent has a prosperous future. But generally, it is still backward economically and there exists a big gap with the developed world.

So the international community should give more concern and provide help to the region with more investment in industry, agriculture and infrastructure, said the Chinese representative.

He said the cooperation between China and Africa, starting more than half a century ago, has increased remarkably in recent years. The Chinese government announced a series of measures to promote Sino-African economic and trade cooperation during the Beijing Summit of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation in 2006.

China has carried out practical and mutually-beneficial cooperation with Africa in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, infrastructure, human resources, education and tourism, as well as technical cooperation and training of talents with Africa.

He also said China has been carrying out cooperation with Africa on an equal footing. As a developing country, China has some experience in its development which can be shared by African countries. But different countries should take their own ways according to their particular conditions.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2008)