A Jolly Chinese Aid Party

Thursday, 12th April, 2007  - Richard Farmer 
Annmaree O'Keeffe
In Beijing at the end of last month a group of Australian government officials got together with some counterparts from the Chinese Department of Commerce for a celebration to mark 25 years of co-operation. Annmaree O'Keeffe, AusAID's deputy director general and Yu Jianhua, director of the Ministry’s Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs toasted the $1 billion given in foreign aid to China since the first Aussie dollar was spent in 1981.
With China now having some trillion dollars in currency reserves and having become the largest lender to Africa, reportedly loaning at least $8 billion to the continent, it might have been an appropriate occasion to mark the end of this aid relationship but it was not so.
On the future direction of Australia's programs Ms O'Keeffe told the happy gathering "our partnership will be focused on supporting equity in China's development and addressing the factors that underpin poverty and less on direct poverty alleviation... The strategy is aligned with China's economic reforms and supports China's own agenda of balanced development", Ms O'Keeffe said.
The AusAID website shows that in 2007-07 Australia is spending $41.8 million on foreign aid to China. A new China-Australia Country Program Strategy agreed on 23 November 2005, provides what AusAID describes as "a framework for development cooperation from 2006 through to 2010."
At least we now know one place where a razor gang of a new government could begin its work.

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