Senior managers of the Export-Import Bank of China and the World Bank came together yesterday in Washington to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at building collaboration between the two organizations for development, with a particular focus on Africa.

Li Ruogu, chairman and president of Eximbank and Juan Jose Daboub, managing director of the World Bank, signed the MOU that is designed to facilitate deepened cooperation.

Established in 1994, Eximbank is China's state policy bank for international economic development and cooperation. It serves as a key channel of financing for exports, overseas construction contracts and overseas investment projects and is the only arm for concessional on-lending.

Over the past year, the World Bank has established a strong working partnership with Eximbank. This has included a series of workshops, seminars and training events on a variety of topics, including fiduciary and financial management, procurement, environmental safeguard analysis and social impact analyses.

"This signing represents an important step forward in our joint cooperation supporting improved development results for the poor and vulnerable, especially in Africa," said Daboub who has just completed an eight-day official visit to China. "This collaboration draws on the complementary strengths of each organization -- notably, China's development experience and the World Bank's expertise in analysis and capacity building."

Over 400 million people have left the ranks of the extreme poor in China over the past 20 years. China is well placed to share its successful experience with other developing nations.

"The solution to all kinds of development challenges is to have economically sustainable growth," said Li Ruogu. "We welcome this MOU and the opportunities for collaboration towards this end that it represents."

(China Development Gateway May 22, 2007)