Some of the rich countries of the Group of 77 (G77) and China have pledged 40 million US dollars to a Qatar-proposed development fund, the Qatar News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Mohammad Al-Rumaihi, Qatari Assistance Foreign Minister for Follow-up Affairs and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the ongoing G77 plus China summit, made the announcement, said the report.

According to the official, Qatar pledged a donation of 20 million dollars to the "South Fund for Development and Human Circumstances", proposed by the Qatari Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani during the opening session of the two-day summit in the morning.

The Chinese delegation to the summit also pledged 2 million dollars to the fund, Al-Rumaihi said, without mentioning details about the other donors.

Al-Rumaihi said Qatar did not seek to utilize its proposals for political objectives, but aimed at encouraging development of the South countries.

The fund's aid would not be subjected to political conditions but according to economic criteria, he stressed.

The official explained that the South fund would have a board consisting of representatives from seven rich countries of the G77, adding the board members will not need the assistance of the fund and their work will be transparent.

The two-day second summit of the G77 plus China kicked off in the Qatari capital of Doha on Wednesday morning, focusing on ways to promote South-South cooperation in addition to South-North ties and UN reform.

The summit, also known as the second South Summit five years after a first gathering of the group in Havana, Cuba, gathered 32 heads of state, in addition to prime ministers, foreign ministers and senior officials of over 130 member states.

Source: Xinhua