LUSAKA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior Zambian government official said on Tuesday that the country will take advantage of the forthcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in September to seek more funding for its development needs.

After benefiting from the 60 billion U.S. dollars pledged by the Chinese government for Africa at the previous FOCAC Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015, Zambia was looking forward to the next summit in order to tap into finances that may be provided by China at the event, said Minister of Information and Broadcasting Dora Siliya.

"Zambia will continue to value its friendship with China and if there are any funds out there being provided by the Chinese at such platforms, those are the resources Zambia would like to tap into so that we can meet our development deficit gap in order to provide development to our people," she told Xinhua.

Zambia, she said, has benefited a lot through its engagement with China and its participation at the previous FOCAC, which has resulted in accelerated development especially in infrastructure in the last 10 years.

She noted that the infrastructure development the country has recorded could not have been achieved without the collaboration with China which has proved to be an "all-weather" partner.

She hopes for more financial support, especially in rural areas. This, she said, will help the country in creating more jobs in the rural parts of the country, a situation that will help lift people out of poverty.

The country, she said, requires more investment in energy which was cardinal in any development and hoped that Chinese enterprises will take advantage of the opportunities existing in the sector.

She further said Zambia has a lot to learn from China's development path which has led the country to become the world's second largest economy in a span of three decades.