China plans to send jobless to live in Africa

September 21, 2007 - Business Report - South africa

China is preparing to send more farmers to Africa as rural labourers find it increasingly difficult to find jobs in the nation's urban centres.

At a meeting in southwest China's Chongqing city on Tuesday the head of China's Export-Import Bank, Li Ruogu, pledged to help finance African emigration as part of the city's urbanisation scheme.

"With the establishment of the [rapid urbanisation] project, several million farmers will have to move," the People's Daily quoted Li saying.

China's Commerce Ministry refused to say how many contracted Chinese workers have been sent to Africa, but according to state press reports up to two-hundred thousand Chinese-born mainlanders live in South Africa alone.