China grants $1 billion loan for Pacific island nations

BRIC Post, November 8, 2013

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (R)
 greets Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana
Carcasses [Xinhua]

China said on Friday that it will provide a concessional loan of $1 billion to Pacific island nations to support major construction projects.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang announced this during his keynote speech at the second China-Pacific Island Countries Forum held in south China’s Guangdong Province.

China also offered over 2000 scholarships for talents from these countries and an offer to aid the medical sector including building medical facilities.

Wang also signaled Beijing’s support for agricultural development and green energy projects of the Pacific island countries.

Representatives from Micronesia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Fiji attended the forum.

The first forum was held in Fiji in 2006.

The Pacific Islands provide important shipping routes for natural resources such as gas and nickel.

Japan, with whom China is engaged in a bitter territorial dispute, had also announced last year that it would grant $500 million in aid to these nations over three years.

Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean