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2009-0413 - Reuters - China planned $10 billion investment fund at summit

http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc06/idUKTRE53B07P20090413

China planned $10 billion investment fund at summit
Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:30am BST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China had planned to announce a $10 billion infrastructure investment fund and offer credit to neighbors at a canceled weekend summit of Asian leaders in Thailand, its foreign minister said.

Anti-government protestors forced the cancellation of the summit in Pattaya after they swarmed into the summit venue.

In an interview with state media on a flight back to China, Foreign minister Yang Jiechi avoided direct criticism of the Thai government while detailing measures that Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had planned to offer at the summit.

China plans to establish a $10 billion China-ASEAN investment cooperation fund to promote infrastructure that connects it to ASEAN nations, Yang said.

China has been active in building roads from its southern border through neighboring Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, to ease trade.

It will also offer a credit of $15 billion to ASEAN countries, including preferential loans of $1.7 billion for cooperation projects, Yang said.

It plans to offer 270 million yuan ($39.51 million) in aid to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to help those impoverished countries combat the global financial crisis, and will inject $5 million into the China-ASEAN cooperation fund, Yang said.

While not an ASEAN member, China's growing economic clout, huge market and competitive exports make it an important participant in ASEAN summits, although tensions persist over competing claims to the South China Sea and Chinese plans for dams that are opposed by other nations along the Mekong river.

China recently appointed its first ambassador to ASEAN, after the 10-member grouping formally adopted a charter.

($1=6.833 Yuan)

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by David Fox)

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Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.


______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu