China, criticised in the West for overlooking human rights abuses in its business dealings with poverty-stricken Africa, will encourage commercial banks to lend more to the continent, a Chinese trade official said on Saturday.
Beijing pledged $10 billion "preferential" loans to Africa in 2009, but Zhong Manying, an official at the Ministry of Commerce, said that was not enough.
"In view of Africa's demand for funds, the $10 billion is too limited," Zhong told a news briefing.
A recent World Bank study showed that Africa needs $93 billion in annual infrastructure spending, with at least $45 billion relying on external financing.
Zhong shrugged off talk that increased Chinese loans may actually worsen debt problems.
"What is the most important thing for Africa? Survival and development," she said.
Chinese banks have already started to pour money into Africa.
Last month, Ghana said it had signed nearly $13 billion worth of loan deals with two Chinese state banks, namely China Development Bank and the China Exim Bank.
A Chinese loan deal to Democratic Republic of Congo was trimmed to $6 billion from $9 billion last year after the IMF raised concerns the contract, which used mineral reserves as a guarantee for infrastructure projects, would plunge the central African country deeper into debt.
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Chinese investments in Africa hit $32.3 billion by August 2010, spurred by a cooperation model of "resources for projects and credit", the ministry said in a separate statement.
China's trade with Africa is expected to top $100 billion in 2010, from $91.1 billion in 2009, according to the ministry.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said last month that China takes a different tack on extending aid to developing countries, eschewing tough terms demanded by Western donors.
"Some friends from Western countries ask me why China continues to give foreign assistance to some countries with bad human rights records or problematic political regimes," Chen said.
"I tell them that the social and cultural systems are different and the development path and political regimes are diversified and there is no one single way."
