China Inks Agreement to Invest $1 Billion in African Railway

Thu Sep 05 2024
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Monitoring Desk
China, African Railway, Belt and Road, China-Africa Cooperation, President Xi
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BEIJING: China, Tanzania, and Zambia signed an initial agreement to revive the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority on September 4, in a bid to improve rail-sea transportation in East Africa, according to a Western media report.

According to reports China proposed to invest $1 billion to revamp the decades-old 1,156-mile-long railway track in February via a public-private partnership model.

President Xi Jinping spoke about improving China-Africa ties and working together towards modernization at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on September 5.

The Tanzanian president, Zambian president, and Chinese president witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding confirming the revitalization project of the Tanzania-Zambia Authority railway.

The Tanzanian president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and the Zambian president, Hakainde Hichilema, attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The single-track railway, constructed between 1970 and 1975 by Chinese and African workers, was financed by an interest-free loan from China and currently allows cargo transport from Zambia’s copper and cobalt mines to the coast of Tanzania.

The Chinese president on the occasion expressed China’s willingness to take this summit as an opportunity to make new progress in the revitalization of the Tanzania-Zambia railway, cooperate to improve the rail-sea transport network in East Africa and build Tanzania into a demonstration zone for strengthened China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation.

At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi gave a keynote speech about improving China-Africa ties. According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was first founded in 2000.

President Xi said that China is willing to actively conduct cooperation with Africa in areas such as poverty reduction, talent training, and employment in its pursuit of modernization for both countries.

He also spoke of implementing 30 infrastructure connectivity projects in Africa to promote construction of the “Belt and Road,” initiative adopted by China in 2013.

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Critiques are justified in questioning the outcome of such a lengthy military and political campaign orchestrated by the USA in Afghanistan. No satisfactory response has ever surfaced from the State Department and Pentagon sides about the quick meltdown of the Afghan National Army. It is obvious that the surprisingly expeditious winding up of the Ashraf Ghani regime further exposed the weaknesses of the whole American prescription applied to heal Afghanistan. The multiple damaging effects of the ill-conceived strategy on the war-torn society of Afghanistan are not too difficult to understand. Present-day Afghanistan is more polarized and unsettled under the Taliban’s unelected regime. The demolition of the political façade in August 2021 was not a sudden development but rather a much-expected outcome of the dubious Doha agreement. 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