The eight steps the Chinese Government has proposed to assist African countries are as follows:

1. China will double the 2006 level of assistance to Africa by 2009.

2. It will provide $3 billion of preferential loans and $2 billion of preferential buyers' credits to Africa in the next three years.

3. It will set up a China-Africa development fund that will reach $5 billion to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and provide support to them.

4. It will build a conference center for the African Union to support African countries in their efforts to strengthen through unity and support the process of African integration.

5. It will cancel debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China.

6. China will further open its market to Africa by increasing from 190 to over 440 the number of export items receiving zero-tariff treatment from the least developed countries in Africa having diplomatic ties with China.

7. It will establish three to five trade and economic cooperation zones in Africa in the next three years.

8. Over the next three years, China will train 15,000 African professionals; send 100 senior agricultural experts to Africa; set up 10 special agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa; build 30 hospitals in Africa and provide 300 million yuan of grants for providing artemisinin and building 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers in Africa; dispatch 300 youth volunteers to Africa; build 100 rural schools in Africa, and increase the number of Chinese government scholarships to African students from the current 2,000 per year to 4,000 per year by 2009.