China to give 10,000 scholarships to African govt staff

China on Wednesday announced it would offer 10,000 scholarships for African government employees over the next ten years.

Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi made the announcement during a press conference following the opening ceremony of the Africa-China High Level Think-Tank Forum at the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"Human resource development is one of five priority areas of Chinese assistance to Africa," Yi said, adding China would be supporting Africa in five priority areas of development and security that meshed with the latter's development strategy as mapped out in Agenda 2063.

He said peacekeeping, poverty alleviation, education and training as well as health would be the other priority areas of China-Africa partnership.

Yi also reiterated his country's pledge of $1 million for peacekeeping efforts for Africa which the African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said was laudable.

Mahamat added that the reason Africa had remained poor was due to slavery and subsequent colonialism that drained away the continent's prime work force.

The two-day forum brings together intellectuals from Africa and China who will brainstorm how best to expedite implementation of agreements between China and Africa.