From an article in the New York Times:
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao pledged to grant African countries $10 billion in low-interest development loans over the next three years, to establish a $1 billion loan program for small and medium-size businesses, and to forgive the remaining debt on certain interest-free loans that China previously granted less-developed African nations. Mr. Wen made the pledge in an address to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheik. The $10 billion in new loans is double the amount China pledged at the last meeting in 2006.How much is $10 billion? Well, at $5,000 to establish a village library, and another $5,000 to endow it for librarian salary and incidentals, about 100,000 libraries could be established and operated for five years... for $1 billion. Burkina Faso has about 8,000 villages, and maybe 5,000 are big enough to benefit from a library (i.e. have a primary school). So if sub-Saharan Africa has about 450 million people in rural areas, and Burkina 10 million, Africa is 45 times Burkina, so 45 times 5,000 is 225,000. So under $3 billion is enough to cover pretty much all of rural Africa. The problem is that refurbishing an existing building to be a library and buying local books and local shelving and chairs generates no demand for anything Chinese... and most Chinese villages lack libraries themselves... so... ain't gonna happen. I'm not complaining or blaming... just saying...
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