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by the writer Xinhua Zhu Shaobin
NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) – From the Horn of Africa to the south of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa is located a vast expanse of thousands of kilometers from the West Historically, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He, under the Ming Dynasty, had led trade ambassadors and reportedly reached four times the coastal region of eastern and southern Africa, sowing the initial seeds of the Sino-African friendship an old trade route of the maritime silk road.
More than 600 years have passed since these first trips. This region now boasts some of Africa's most dynamic economies, which seek to strengthen regional integration with better infrastructure through cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative proposed by China
. Djibouti, the Mombasa-Nairobi normal gauge railway in Kenya, the Maputo cross-country bridge in Mozambique, and various established industrial areas in recent years are a reflection of successful cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
A TRUE COMING DREAM
Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the economic belt of the Silk Road and to the 21st century maritime route, which aims to build a trade and network infrastructure linking Asia to Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.
An Open and Inclusive Platform for Economic Cooperation In 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.
He always had this dream of owning a house in Addis Ababa. "
Yet, compared to the average salary of a local employee, the price of housing is simply too high to realize his dream.He was employed six years ago by the China Railway Group (CREC), the One of the contractors of the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway
"Tesfay was just the kind of guy we needed when we arrived in Addis Ababa a few years ago, while the streets of the city barely had names and the houses did not have a door number. It was a map of the city on foot, "said Yuan Qiang, CREC Group Expert No. 2 at the Operation and Maintenance Project
. With the help of the project and his Chinese colleagues, Tesfay finally managed to buy his dream. Four years ago, there was a house in the city with a down payment.
"The price of the house has now gone up a lot, which is equivalent to several years of my salary," said Tesfay.
Examples of African Workers The Nairobi-Mombasa railway project has created nearly 50,000 jobs for locals and trained more than 5,000 technicians since construction began at the end of 2014. The Sea Maputo, because of this project, which will be launched soon, has also created more than 20,000 jobs for locals, full-time and part-time, since the project began in June 2014, according to data from the China Road and Bridge Corporation
THEME OF THE TREND IN AFRICA [19659002] As the Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote connectivity between nations, more African countries are eager to know how they could benefit from it to promote regional integration by improving 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 African Belt and Road Initiative in Nairobi. ;East.
James Macharia, Secretary of Kenya Ministry of Transport The project is a model of cooperation with China for infrastructure development and socio-economic transformation.
Describing the project as a changer, Macharia said the extension of the modern rail 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 BRICS Development Bank initiative has enriched cooperation between countries and regions and has been a driving force of global economic growth.
The Maritime Silk Road connects East Africa to Asia and Europe. He said that the Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, had said earlier that Africa was an important destination for the initiative of the belt and the road
. bring unprecedented new opportunities for Sino-African cooperation. "
NEW DYNAMICS FOR TIES
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road initiative, put forward in 2013.
Over the years, after some nations in East Africa have taken their first steps to boost national development as part of the initiative, West African countries, inc 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 asking the Nigeria, the largest economy and most populous country in Africa, take a stand and become a key player in attracting this initiative to its shores.
"In Nigeria, China is doing pretty well. The Abuja-Kaduna railway, the Abuja light rail from downtown to the airport, among other projects, are all in the spirit of the belt and the road, "said The Sino-African Cooperation Summit (FOCAC) should be a major topic.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said earlier this year that Zimbabwe would fully participate in the initiative. Prof Mnangagwa said: "The Belt and Road Initiative is indeed a vision for the future."
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga told Xinhua that the philosophy of the The Belt and Road initiative is opening up economic opportunities, to give countries around the world better access to resources, technology and closer connectivity.
" the essence of the connectivity of the global economy. If you want another word for Belt and Road, it's a friendly globalization of the economy, "he added.
(Xinhua: Wang Shoubao in Addis Ababa, Jin Zheng in Nairobi , Zhang Yuliang in Harare, Li Sibo in Dar es Salaam contributed to the story)
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