REUTERS/Alet Pretorius Acquire Licensing RightsJOHANNESBURG, Aug 22 (Reuters) - African countries want China to shift its focus from building infrastructure on the continent to local industrialisation, China's top Africa diplomat said on Tuesday at a briefing on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa. "African integration is already escalating and many African countries (have) asked China to consider (a) shift (of) our focus," Wu Peng, director-general of China's department of African affairs at its foreign ministry, said. China will talk through its plans for African industrialisation with African leaders on Thursday at a special roundtable on the sidelines of the Aug. 22-24 meeting of the BRICS bloc - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Between 2000 and 2020, Chinese lenders - mostly state-owned banks - agreed to lend $160 billion to African countries, according to Boston University. He also said that investments by Chinese companies in Africa, especially from small and medium-sized companies, would increase.

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Persons: Xi Jinping, Alet Pretorius, Wu Peng, Wu, Xi, Carien du Plessis, Tannur Anders, Emelia Sithole Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Africa Continental Free Trade, Boston University, for, Africa Cooperation, Thomson Locations: Pretoria, South Africa, Rights JOHANNESBURG, China, China's, Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, for China