The biggest-developing country in the world, China, which also has the fastest-growing economy globally, would do nothing to harm Africa, and was taking measures to narrow the trade imbalance between its country and Africa, President Hu Jintao said on Wednesday.

Speaking to an audience at the University of Pretoria, Jintao stated that the Chinese government would continue to take steps to increase imports from Africa to balance trade between the two sides.

“China takes the concerns about the imbalance in the structure of China-Africa trade and the scope of Chinese investment seriously,” he stressed. “We have taken, and will continue to take, effective steps to address these concerns.”

Many South African trade unions had expressed concerns in the past that cheap Chinese imports were killing off jobs in the local industry.

The local textile industry had been bled of 80 000 jobs since 1995, which the Southern African Clothing and Textiles Workers' Union blamed squarely on China.

However, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in July that local companies should not view the emergence of the Chinese and Indian economies as a threat, but rather as “the biggest opportunity we've ever had”.

He explained that South Africa had a reasonably sophisticated manufacturing base, which the government was working to strengthen through various supplier-development programmes, and local companies should take advantage of this.

International groups, as well as South African President Thabo Mbeki, have also warned of a 'colonialisation' of African countries by resources-hungry China.

“China has never imposed its will or unequal practices on other countries and will never do so in the future,” emphasised Jintao. “It will certainly not do anything harmful to the interests of Africa and its people.”

He went on to say that economic and technological cooperation was an important foundation for growing China-Africa relations.

“We should expand mutually beneficial cooperation and draw on our comparative strengths,” Jintao stated.

“We should also diversify ways of conducting China-Africa cooperation.

In addition to trade, we should expand our cooperation to other areas, including investment, technology and project contracting,” he detailed, adding that priority should be given to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and public welfare projects that were “vital to people's livelihood”.

“We encourage Chinese companies to increase investment in Africa, provide technical and management training and help Africa develop processing and manufacturing industries so as to ease employment pressure and enhance the competitiveness of its exports,” Jintao highlighted.

He said that China would continue to support the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

The Chinese government would also work towards fully implementing the policy steps announced at the Beijing Summit for strengthening pragmatic cooperation with Africa and supporting its development, enhance capacity building and improve people's livelihood.

“I am confident that, with our concerted efforts, China-Africa cooperation will continue to enjoy steady progress,” Jintao said.

He noted that China had always taken a “keen interest” in Africa's development, and that the Chinese people had always been “deeply concerned” about the welfare of the African people.

“We fully support Africa's cause of peace and development and sincerely hope to contribute our share to helping the African people build their homelands and improve their lives,” Jintao stated.

Currently China provides 2 000 government scholarships for African students in China, and Jintao said that this number would be doubled, to 4 000, in the next three years.