Belt and Road gives new impetus to Sino-African cooperation

NAIROBI. – From the Horn of Africa to the south of Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, lies a vast expanse of thousands of miles of coastline in the western Indian Ocean.

Historically, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He during the Ming Dynasty had led trade ambassadors and reportedly reached four times the coastal region of eastern and southern Africa, sowing the seeds of initial Chinese friendship. African and digging an old commercial sea route of silk.

More than 600 years have passed since these first trips. This region now boasts some of Africa's fastest growing economies, which seek to strengthen regional integration through better infrastructure through cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. proposed by China.

Sino-African cooperation projects such as the electrified railroad linking landlocked Ethiopia to Djibouti, the Mombasa-Nairobi normal gauge railway in Kenya, the Maputo cross-bridges in Mozambique and various areas Established industrials in recent years are a reflection Successful cooperation in the framework of the initiative Belt and Road

A dream come true

Proposed by China in 2013, l & # 39; Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which aims to establish a commercial and infrastructure network connecting Asia to Europe and Africa on along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

Open and inclusive platform for economic cooperation between nations and governments, the initiative has helped change people's lives.

Tesfay, 38, was a taxi driver in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, with an income that could barely support his family.

"In fact, I've always dreamed of owning a house in Addis Ababa," he said.

Yet, compared to the average salary of a local employee, the price of housing is simply too high for him to realize his dream.

Due to his ability to drive and his thorough knowledge of the city, he was employed six years ago by the China Railway Group (CREC), one of the Ethiopian-Djibouti railway contractors.

"Tesfay was just the kind of guy we needed when we arrived in Addis Ababa years ago, when the streets of the city barely had names and the houses did not have It was a map of the city on foot, "said Yuan Qiang, expert of the CREC Group No. 2 at the Operation and Maintenance Project.

With the help of the project and his Chinese colleagues, Tesfay finally managed to buy the house of his dreams in the city with a down payment four years ago.

"The price of the house has even increased a lot, which equates to several years of my salary, "Tesfay said.

Examples of African workers benefiting from various projects under the Belt and Road Initiative abound.

The Nairobi-Mombasa Railway Project has created close to 50,000 jobs for locals and trained more than 5,000 technicians since the beginning of s works in late 2014. The Maputo Cross-Sea Bridge, which will soon be launched, has also created more than 20,000 jobs. Full-time and part-time, since the beginning of the project in June 2014, data from the China Road and Bridge Corporation

Subject to fashion in Africa

As desired by Belt and Road initiative To promote connectivity between nations, more African countries are eager to learn how they can benefit from it in their efforts to promote regional integration by modernizing roads, ports, railways and telecommunication networks.

In June, officials, academics and think tanks gathered in Kenya for a case study on the Nairobi-Mombasa Railway, a pioneering project of the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. l & # 39; Is.

James Macharia, Cabinet Secretary of the Kenya Ministry of Transport, said the project is a model of cooperation with China for infrastructure development and socio-economic transformation.

Calling the game changer project, Macharia said the extension of the modern railway project to the border with Uganda will boost trade and industrialization along its corridor. .

Gerishon Ikiara, Professor of International Economics at the University of Nairobi, said that the initiative proposed by China and the BRICS Development Bank have enriched cooperation between countries and countries. regions and have been important drivers of global economic growth.

The Maritime Silk Road connects East Africa to Asia and Europe, and the extension of standard gauge railroads in Africa from The East will greatly improve the transportation of the region and reduce the commercial costs.

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, said earlier that Africa is an important destination for the Belt and Road Initiative.

"The construction of projects under the initiative will bring unprecedented new opportunities for Sino-African cooperation," he said.

New Dynamics for Links

This Year marks the fifth anniversary Road Initiative was first proposed in 2013.

Over the years, some nations of Africa from the West, especially Nigeria, Mauritania and Ivory Coast, have expressed interest in participating in the construction of the belt and road.

The Nigerian newspaper Leadership published a full-page article last month, which urged Nigeria, the largest economy and the most populous country in Africa, to take a stand and become a key player in attracting this initiative on its shores.

"In Nigeria, China is doing pretty well.The Abuja-Kaduna railway, the Abuja tramway between the city center and the airport, among other projects, are all in the air. 39, spirit of the belt and the road, "said the article.

African leaders will meet this September in Beijing for the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and The Belt and Road Initiative should be a major topic.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said earlier this year that Zimbabwe would fully participate in the initiative for the benefit of its economy.

" The Belt and Road initiative is indeed a vision for the future, "said Mnangagwa.

Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga told Xinhua that the philosophy of the company is" the way to go. " Belt and Road initiative is to open up economic opportunities, to give to the countries of the world better access to resources, technology and closer connectivity. "It's the very essence of the connectivity of the global economy.If you want another word for Belt and Road, it's a globalization of the friendly economy," he added. – Xinhua