CAIRO, Egypt (Xinhua) – Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday offered financial and humanitarian assistance to improve livelihood, fight terrorism and promote development in the Arab world.

Xi unveiled a host of moves including loans, financial aid and common investment fund in his speech delivered at the Arab League headquarters based in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

The Chinese leader is on his first state visit to the North African nation. Before arriving in Egypt, Xi also visited Saudi Arabia, the first leg of his three-nation Middle East tour, which will also take him to Iran later this week.

The Chinese Government has decided to pledge 50 million RMB (US$7.53 million) to help improve the lives of the Palestinians and 230 million RMB (about US$35 million) for Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen as humanitarian assistance, said Xi.

Beijing also wants to promote the industrialisation in the Middle East. To achieve that end, China is going to hand out a number of loan programmes, including a 15-billion exclusive loan, a 10-billion business lending, and 10 billion in concessional loans so as to facilitate industrial capacity co-operation between China and the regional countries, according to the president.

Meanwhile, China is also prepared to work with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to set up a common investment fund worth US$20 billion that focuses on traditional sources of energy in the Middle East, infrastructure, and high-end manufacturing.

Xi also offered in his speech US$300 million for law enforcement co-operation, police training so as to help build up the abilities of the regional countries to maintain stability.