China's failure to provide clear details of its aid to the Pacific region was raised as a matter of concern at a summit today. Also criticised was the reluctance or inability of Pacific island governments to release information on its loans, bilateral projects and grants from Beijing. Lowy Institute researcher, Dr Philippa Brant, told the summit at the National University of Samoa that mapping Chinese aid in the region was a difficult task. Next week she will launch an internet-based tool which will show the complexity of China’s aid to the Pacific. This will allow members of the public – particularly students, journalists and researchers - to have a clear view of Chinese aid by sector, country and type of assistance. Dr Brant was speaking at a three-day summit organized by the Victoria University of Wellington, the Sun Yat-sen University of Guangzhou and the National University of Samoa to discuss China’s role in the region. Chinese Ambassador to Samoa, Li Yanduan, said the lack of credible information was sometimes due to China’s policies which saw disbursement of aid and assistance from a number of different departments or ministries. “At times there is no consolidated data on what each (department) is doing so it can be difficult to bring all the information together in one place,” Li said. The new tool designed by Dr Brant has taken information on Chinese aid and assistance from 500 sources including regional government departments, news reports, tender notices and public documents. The tool – basically an interactive map – shows 169 individual aid projects across the Pacific listing the value of each project, the contractor, location and type of financing provided. It will be available on Monday.Meanwhile, China has become the third largest donor in the Pacific, outstripping Japan. And it has become the largest donor to Fiji despite the fact that Australia continues to provide more than six times the amount of China’s aid to the region. A paper delivered by Dr Philippa Brant of the Australia-based Lowy Institute, showed that China became Fiji’s largest donor in 2013 with various infrastructure projects including hydro-electricity dams and roads. Participants at a three-day summit on China’s increasing influence in the region voiced concern over the increasing number of concessional loans to Pacific governments. Fiji’s Opposition parliamentarian and economist, Dr Biman Prasad, said cost benefit analysis and priority setting exercise were essential before loans were taken. “Many countries do not do this and they seldom realise the risks of taking soft loans,” he said. “It is very important that (governments) realise that these debts are huge and it is the next generation which will end up repaying these loans,\ said Dr Prasad.,China's failure to provide clear details of its aid to the Pacific region was raised as a matter of concern at a summit today. Also criticised was the reluctance or inability of Pacific island governments to release information on its loans