"Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the ADB board meeting to be held
in Shanghai from May 16 to 17 and deliver a speech," Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular briefing Tuesday in
Beijing.
It will be the first time the annual board meeting of the
African Development Bank (ADB) has been held in Asia, and the
second time outside Africa. In 2001, the bank's annual board
meeting was held in Spain.
It is another significant Africa-related event hosted by China,
following the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum
held in November 2006.
Themed "African and Asia: Partners in Development", the meeting
will focus on infrastructure development in Africa, regional
integrity and poverty relief.
People's Bank of China president Zhou Xiaochuan will chair the meeting. About
2,000 people are expected to attend the meeting, including finance
ministers and governors of the central banks of member states,
representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund
and other regional development finance organizations and
non-governmental organizations.
A series of business seminars will be held on the sidelines of
the ADB board meeting, which are aimed at further tapping the
potential of cooperation between China and Africa.
Founded in 1964, the ADB has 77 members from Africa, America,
Europe and Asia. China became a member in 1985.
(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2007)
