1979 In May, Kimura Ichizo, President of Kansai Headquarters of Japan Trade Promotion Association, visited China. He used to be a Japanese from party member and was very friendly to China. Kimura mentioned in a conversation with Minister of Communications Nengsheng that the Japanese government has a foreign aid loan that the China government can try to use. The Ministry of Communications immediately reported this information to the State Council in the form of a briefing. Li Xiannian, deputy director of the State Council Children's Management Department, read the instructions: This matter may be true, please catch Comrade Gu Mu.
Gu Mu handed this task to Xie, deputy director of the State Construction Committee. Xie took the initiative to find the Economic Counselor of the Japanese Embassy in China, and got the answer that such a loan did exist to help low-income countries with a per capita GNP of less than $800. The loan interest rate is only 0.75%- 1.5%, and the loan term is 30 years. Before 10 years, only the interest was repaid, and there was a grace period of 10 years. Loans are mainly used for the construction of national economic infrastructure such as ports, railways and power stations. At that time, China's per capita GNP was about $350, and it continued to build infrastructure, which was a good target for Japanese government loans.
1September, 1979, Gu Mu led a delegation to visit Japan, accompanied by Liu Zhicheng, and finally finalized the first batch of four yen loan projects. 197965438+In early February, Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira visited China, and it was he who announced the implementation of aid and development loans to China. Immediately, Xie led a delegation to Japan and signed the first loan agreement. China accepted a loan of 50 billion yen from the Japanese government (about 330 million RMB, 220 million US dollars at the current exchange rate). 1978, China's foreign exchange reserves were only $65,438+67 million. This loan is the earliest and largest foreign government loan accepted by China since the reform and opening up.
Some new generation politicians in Japan don't understand the background of ODA to China and say some irresponsible words on this issue. In fact, Japanese aid to China is not just a matter of loans. As Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said when answering a reporter's question, "As we all know, the Japanese yen loan to China is a kind of mutual fund cooperation with a special political and historical background." This "special political and historical background" includes not only the historical background of Japan's invasion and plunder of China, but also the background of peace and friendship between China and Japan.
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Beijing Representative Office specializes in Japanese yen loans to China. According to the information provided by them, as of March 3, 2004, there were 338 yen loan projects with a total amount of 3 trillion yen, that is,172.6 billion yuan. JICA Representative Office in China is responsible for technical cooperation and free assistance in official development assistance to China. According to the information provided by them, by 2003, the accumulated amount of technical cooperation provided by Japan reached 654.38+044.6 billion yen; There are 266 free aid projects with a total amount of 654.38+028.6 billion yen.
These funds are widely used in China's railways, highways, ports, airports and other infrastructure, as well as rural development, environmental protection, medical care, education and other fields, and aid projects are spread all over China's provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.