China provides world with $58 billion in development aid in six decades: white paper

BEIJING - China has provided approximately 400 billion yuan (about $58 billion) in development aid to 166 countries and international organizations over the past 60 years, said a white paper issued Thursday.

According to the white paper titled "The Right to Development: China's Philosophy, Practice and Contribution," the world's current second largest economy has trained more than 12 million personnel from developing countries, and dispatched over 600,000 people to aid development in other countries.

Among them, 700 have given their lives in the course of these programs.

The white paper noted that China has absorbed about 23 percent of exports from the world's least developing countries since 2008, adding that it will set up a South-South Cooperation Fund to improve economic growth and standards of living in the developing countries.

It will also increase its investment in the least developing countries, write off certain countries' debts, establish an International Development Knowledge Center, and further the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure and trade network proposed by China in 2013, the white paper said.

In the next five years, the document read, China will implement six "One Hundred Programs" targeting developing countries -- namely 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural cooperation programs, 100 trade aid programs, 100 eco-protection and climate change programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers.

One hundred and twenty thousand training opportunities in China and 150,000 scholarships will be made available to developing countries, and 500,000 vocational technical personnel will be trained for developing countries, the white paper said.