African officials have expressed strong desire to learn from China about its successful development in agriculture and hoped to strengthen cooperation with the country on agriculture and poverty reduction.

"I am here looking forward to being inspired," Momodu L Kargbo, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Finance and Economic Department of Sierra Leone told Xinhuanet.com Thursday on the sidelines of the ongoing Experience-Sharing Program on Development between China and Africa held in Beijing.

"We want to learn from your (Chinese) experience, given the substantial progress you (China) have made," Mr. Kargbo said.

His opinion was echoed by Salka Cheikh Maalainine Robert, an official of Ministry of Finance of Mauritania.

Mr. Robert said that African countries were lucky to have the chance to learn about China's successful experience on agriculture development.

"The most important thing now is how to apply this experience to their own countries and work out feasible policies," he said.

Agriculture is still regarded as a pillar of economy in African countries. However, lack of investment, inadequate research on agriculture, no access to qualified seeds, limited access to market, poor agricultural infrastructure and irrigation systems, low fertility soils, climate change, globalization of economy, reduced foreign aid have combined to impede agriculture development in Africa.

China has practical experience in agriculture development, especially in promoting reform and development in rural areas, said Dr. Wang Yan, a senior economist with the World Bank.

In the past three years, China has aided 34 African countries in dealing with government debt, provided 102 projects involving loans on favorable terms, and trained 25, 000 professionals for African countries, China's Vice Commerce Minister Fu Ziying said.

The world economic crisis will not impact China's aid to Africa, Fu said Wednesday at the start of the workshop. "Chinese aid projects in Africa are well underway, and China hopes the African continent will benefit from them as early as possible," he said

Fu said China has also imposed zero custom duties on more than 400 kinds of African products in order to boost bilateral trade, which increased 45 percent year-on-year to 106.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.

More than 100 participants, including high-ranking government officials from 21 countries in central and west Africa and World Bank Vice President Sanjay Pradhan, attended the meeting.

The delegates will also travel to east China's Shangdong Province and southeast China's Fujian Province to inspect rural development.

Source:Xinhua