<strong>China</strong> aktuell <strong>Data</strong> <strong>Supplement</strong> – PRC, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Taiwan 51 understanding (MOU) and a cooperation plan. Muhammad Khayr al-Wadi said <strong>China</strong> and Syria had a long history of friendship and exchanges going back to the Silk Road period. "We will work together to promote bilateral tourism exchanges," he said. Syria's tourism income reached 2.3bn US dollars last year and it expects to welcome 12m foreign travellers by 2015. (XNA, 19 Dec 06) International Agreements <strong>China</strong> has granted tourist destination status to 26 African countries, according to an action plan endorsed by Chinese and African leaders in Beijing on 5 November. "With the new decision of the Chinese government to extend the Approved Destination Status (ADS) to nine African countries including Algeria, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Mali, Mozambique, Benin and Nigeria, there are now 26 ADS countries in Africa," says the document adopted at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on <strong>China</strong>-Africa Cooperation, a high-profile gathering of leaders from <strong>China</strong> and 48 African countries that have diplomatic relations with it. The number of Chinese tourists to Africa reached 110,000 in 2005, doubling the 2004 figure, according to the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of the Public Security Ministry. Yet tourists to Africa currently account for merely five per cent of the total outbound tourists from the world's most populous nation. In 2005, the Chinese made 31m trips overseas and the figure is expected to grow by 10 per cent this year. Eyeing the huge potential, governments and travel services in many African countries are wooing Chinese tourists and encouraging more Africans to travel to <strong>China</strong>. According to statistics from the World Travel and Tourism Council, the travel and tourism industry in North Africa represents 13.4 per cent of GDP and provides 12 per cent of employment. In sub-Saharan Africa, the sector contributes eight per cent of GDP and generates 10.5 million jobs, accounting for 6.6 per cent of total employment. Tourism revenue in Africa is expected to grow by 4.7 per cent annually in real terms between 2007 and 2016. The Chinese government will extend ADS to more qualified African countries at their request, says the Action Plan. "<strong>China</strong>-Africa cooperation in the tourism industry will help promote understanding and friendship between their peoples," it says. Chinese tourists can get visas to African countries within seven working days, according to Lin Bo, an executive with <strong>China</strong> International Travel Service, the country's largest travel service provider. The landmark two-day Beijing Summit concluded on 5 November, after two historic documents, a declaration and an action plan for 2007-2009, had been adopted. (XNA, 5 Nov 06) Lome, 23 November: <strong>China</strong> and West African nations signed a credit agreement that involves tens of millions of euros, a follow-up to the <strong>China</strong>-Africa summit held last month in Beijing. At the end of a tow-day forum, the <strong>China</strong> Day of Economy, the Import and Export Bank of <strong>China</strong> and the West African Development Bank (WADB) signed the document under which <strong>China</strong> will provide 70m euros (90.7m US dollars) in credit. The People's Bank of <strong>China</strong> signed a separate agreement with the WADB to provide one million dollars in a technical cooperation fund. On behalf of Togolese Prime Minister Yaovi Agboyibo, who opened the <strong>China</strong> Day of Economy in Lome on Wednesday, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Handicrafts Jean-Lucien Savi de Tove addressed the closing of the forum, saying it has brought hope of economic development to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). He said he was looking forward to a new era of economic cooperation and mutual benefits between <strong>China</strong> and the UEMOA. The economic integration in the region must be based on the model of a fruitful strategic partnership between <strong>China</strong> and African nations, the minister added. During the <strong>China</strong> Day of Economy, participants explored ways to broaden cooperation, especially in personnel training, technical transfer and infrastructure construction. They also exchanged views on regional investments and economic potential, reaching the consensus that closer ties should be forged between Chinese and West African business circles. The UEMOA, established in 1994, groups Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau. The group, which comprises all of France's former West African colonies except Guinea, aims to promote the free movement of people, goods and capital among the member states. The UEMOA states are also members of the larger Economic Community of West African states formed by all the 16 countries in the West African region. (XNA, 24 Nov 06) Haikou, 15 <strong>December</strong>: Ministerial officials from 11 of East Asia's coastal countries signed an agreement to implement a Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia (SDS-SEA). Ministerial level officials from Cambodia, Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK], Indonesia, Japan, Laos, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, East Timor, Vietnam and <strong>China</strong> signed the Haikou declaration, on a Chinese marine administration vessel in Haikou Bay outside the capital city of South <strong>China</strong>'s Hainan Province. The declaration included a three-year action plan on sustainable development covering 2007 to 2010. The declaration said that the East Asian seas had encountered many environmental problems which have increased in recent years. All
52 <strong>December</strong> <strong>2006</strong> the countries that signed the declaration promised to mobilize their financial and legal resources to implement a 10-year long plan which is aimed at ensuring at least 20 per cent of the participating countries' coasts is covered by comprehensive coastal management. Dr Cai Chengying, an official of the East Asia Seas Congress, said that the declaration would not only benefit the concerned countries' ability to protect their marine environment, but also help them reduce disputes and increase mutual political trust. (XNA, 15 Dec 06)
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