<p>In April 2011, the Information Office of China’s State Council released the country’s first White Paper on China’s Foreign Aid which seeks to outline China’s official aid policies, principles and practices. While noting China’s position as a developing country, the White Paper states that the country’s foreign aid represents part of its efforts to fulfil its international responsibilities, and in particular to “help recipient countries strengthen their self-development capacity, enrich and improve their peoples livelihoods, and promote their economic growth and social progress.</p><p>In an April 2011 press conference, Ministry of Commerce Vice-Minister Fu Ziying outlined the following aid priorities for the next 5 years:</p><ul><li>involving recipient countries more deeply in project design</li><li>enhancing the quality of foreign aid and projects</li><li>improving the pertinence and effectiveness of foreign aid</li><li>joining forces with others in foreign aid</li><li>increasing the proportion of grant aid (around 40% to date)</li><li>giving more to heavily indebted countries, LDCs and SIDS (in 2009, 39.7% of China‟s foreign aid went to LDCs); and</li><li>strengthening international cooperation and exchanges and learning from good practices</li></ul>