FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – CHINA’S INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION Luo Zhaohui became CIDCA director in 2021, having pre­viously served as the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and as China’s ambassador to India. CIDCA has a staff of about 100 people, of which around 70 are working on foreign aid, with the remaining in administration. 66 While Chinese aid volumes have risen almost exponentially since the turn of the millennium, the number of aid staff responsible for its management has not increased since the early 1980s. For comparison, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development ( Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung; BMZ) manages an equivalent bilateral ODA budget with around 1,000 staff, which means that a person at CIDCA 67 is tasked with the management of about ten times as much aid funds as their German coun­terpart at the BMZ 68 . CIDCA in China‘s bureaucratic hierarchy While CIDCA is supposed to coordinate China’s foreign aid policy, as a vice-ministry, it is outranked by those whom it is supposed to supervise: by the ministries that are in charge of the execution of foreign aid projects; and by many of the state-owned enterprises(SOEs), that implement foreign aid project and also rank correspond­ing to ministries or vice-ministries. Ministry of Commerce(MOFCOM) The Ministry of Commerce(MOFCOM) is responsible for the implementation of the largest part of Chinese foreign aid projects, specifically turn-key(complete set) projects, technical assistance projects, material projects, and hu­man resources projects. Moreover, MOFCOM is charged with the accreditation and selection of Chinese companies to undertake the implementation of foreign aid projects. The specific tasks are executed by MOFCOM’s subordinate departments and agencies(Figure 4). Prior to CIDCA’s establishment in 2018, MOFCOM had been in the driving seat of China’s international develop­ment cooperation. While it has lost the political steering function, it is still the largest player in China’s foreign aid apparatus financially, with a foreign aid budget of 16.3 bil­lion Renminbi(RMB)(Euro 2.1 billion) 69 for 2021, which is 66 Interview with a Chinese aid expert, June 2019. 67 The BMZ bilateral ODA budget for 2021 was about USD 6 billion: BMZ(2023). Facts and Figures of German Development Cooperation. Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. https://www.bmz.de/en/ministry/facts-figures 68 China’s bilateral ODA for 2018 was estimated to be USD 6.5 billion (Kitano, N.& Miyabayashi, Y.(2020). Estimating China’s Foreign Aid: 2019–2020 Preliminary Figures. JICA Ogata Research Institute. https://www.jica.go.jp/jica-ri/publication/other/20201214_01.html 69 PRC Ministry of Commerce(2021). Ministry of Commerce Departmen­tal Budget 2021( 商务部 2021 年部门预算 ). http://images.mofcom. gov.cn/cws/202103/20210325161919942.pdf accounted for independently from CIDCA’s budget and is significantly higher(CIDCA’s foreign aid budget for 2021 was 78.7 million RMB(Euro 10.3 million). 70 Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation(DOIEC) The Department of Outward Investment and Economic Co­operation(DOIEC) is responsible for several international de­velopment cooperation tasks, including some related to aid. 71 Its tasks related to Chinese aid include conducting a joint political review with CIDCA on grant aid and inter­est-free loan projects and overseeing the implementation of foreign aid zero-interest loan projects in coordination with CIDCA. In this function, it is responsible for the delivery of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines and protective equipment do­nations. The DOIEC also manages the accreditation process that Chinese companies have to go through before they can apply for tenders on delivery of aid-in-goods. 72 Beyond aid, the DOIEC is the department in charge of supporting the “going global” of Chinese companies: It publishes country guides for foreign investment; 73 conducts inspections of Chinese foreign contracted projects and the state of Chi­nese labour abroad(30 projects are inspected randomly per year); and compiles statistics on BRI investments and Chi­nese labour abroad. Agency for International Economic Cooperation (AIECO) The Agency for International Economic Cooperation(AIE­CO), established in July 2003 as an institution under the di­rect authority of MOFCOM, is responsible for the construc­tion of“complete set” foreign aid projects, such as stadi­ums, hospitals, or government buildings. 74 “Complete set” is the official Chinese translation for turn-key projects in this sphere. AIECO is in charge of the full project cycle, from the technical negotiations between China and the recipient countries’ governments on project design to signing the technical implementation and project handover agree­ments on behalf of the Chinese government. On the Chi­nese side, AIECO manages the accreditation process that Chinese companies must go through before they can apply for tenders for these“complete set” projects, as well as the bidding process. So far,“complete set” aid projects have been implemented solely by Chinese companies, mostly state-owned enterprises(SOEs); however, the 2021“Meas­ures for the Administrations of Foreign Aid” allows for pro­70 This is only the foreign aid budget. CIDCA’s total budget is 154.4 mil­lion RMB(Euro 20.2 million). CIDCA.(2021). CIDCA Departmental Budget 2021( 国家国际发展合作署 2021 年部门预算 ). http://www.­cidca.gov.cn/download/2021-03/25/2021bmys.pdf 71 The information in this paragraph is derived from the DOIEC’s website at http://hzs.mofcom.gov.cn[in Chinese]. 72 As of May 2021, 145 companies were accredited as“foreign aid en­terprises” for the delivery of aid-in-goods. The company list is openly accessible on DOIEC’s website at: http://images.mofcom.gov.cn/ hzs/202105/20210526092120420.xls[in Chinese]. 73 All county guides are openly accessible for download at: http://fec. mofcom.gov.cn/article/gbdqzn/index.shtml[in Chinese]. 74 The information in this paragraph is derived from the AIECO’s website at http://www.aieco.org[in Chinese]. 16