World Bank officials say they have held preliminary discussions with China about the prospect of moving millions of low-skilled manufacturing jobs to Africa.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in Beijing that China's labor force is projected to stop growing, the result of its slowing birthrate and one-child policy. At the same time, the government is encouraging manufacturers to begin making more sophisticated, high-value-added products.

Zoellick said if just 5 million of China's 85 million low-value jobs were moved to Africa, it would boost the number of those jobs on the continent by 50 percent. He said his talks with commerce ministry officials are at a very early stage, but have been encouraging.

Zoellick described the talks Monday at the end of a five-day visit to discuss China's future economic prospects.