China is an important factor in economic growth in Africa, Chinese and foreign experts say.

Louka Katseli, director of the development center of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said there was definitely a link between economic development in Africa in recent years and economic growth in China.

Katseli will attend the annual board meeting of the African Development Bank (ADB) scheduled to open in Shanghai on Wednesday.

The volume of trade between China and Africa last year rose 40 percent to 55.5 billion US dollars. China's imports from Africa climbed to 28.8 billion US dollars, a rise of 43 percent on a year ago.

In the framework of the Forum of Sino-African Cooperation, China has granted zero tariff to numerous commodities from the 28 least developed countries in Africa.

"The preferential tax policy benefited Africa to the tune of 250 million US dollars in 2006 alone," said Katseli.

Harry G. Broadman, advisor on the African economy at the World Bank and author of a book entitled "Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Frontier", claims that the Chinese market represents a new economic dawn for the African continent.

The WB economic advisor reckoned that the rapid growth of Sino-African trade and sustained Chinese investment in the continent would boost the integration of the African economy with the world economy.

China's economic activities in Africa will help the African Continent climb out of the doldrums, said Broadman.

He Wenping, director of the African section of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China has contributed an average of 14 percent to the growth of the world economy since the year 1979 when it began to adopt the policy of reform and opening up.

"More and more African countries are sharing the benefits of China's economic growth with economic cooperation racing ahead," said He.

Statistics show China has invested in about 900 projects in Africa, and its investments total some 11.7 billion US dollars.

Since 2000, Chinese companies have contracted to build more than 6,000 km of highways in Africa, 3,000 km of railways, as well as eight large and medium-sized power plants.

China has also helped train 15,000 people and provided scholarships to some 20,000 African students for advanced studies in China. It has also dispatched 16,000 medical workers to Africa, where 180 million local patients have received medical treatment from Chinese medical workers.

The Chinese government's target is for Sino-African trade to reach 100 billion US dollars by the year 2010.