Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) took a 150 million yuan (US$21.95 million) aid gift to Tanzania on Sunday on the penultimate leg of a tour intended to cement China’s ties with Africa despite the global slowdown.
“The traditional friendship between China and Tanzania ... can be viewed as an exemplary relationship of sincerity, solidarity and cooperation between China and an African country, and for that matter between two developing countries,” Hu said.
Hu, who has been to Mali and Senegal, witnessed the signing of the aid deals — 120 million yuan for mainland Tanzania and 30 million yuan for the Zanzibar islands — with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
“It has been a great visit,” said Kikwete, hailing the friendly ties between the two countries.
“China and Tanzania share a common position on many issues, particularly on global peace and development issues, he said.
“We all want an early conclusion of the Doha Round of the WTO talks, which we regard as beneficial to most developing countries,” he added, referring to the WTO talks toward a new global free trade pact.
“At this period of global financial crisis Tanzania and many other developing countries look at China as a partner in solving our problems. It is our hope that China will be on our side,” he said.
Hu said that China had been “impressed by Tanzania’s role in the search for peace and conflict resolution in neighboring countries and throughout Africa,” particularly during Kikwete’s time as chairman of the African Union.
“China will continue working closely with Tanzania on many areas,” he said.
Hu ends his trip on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in a tour of nations that rank outside Africa’s economic and resource heavyweights.
Analysts say it is a deliberate message that Beijing, whose trade with Africa has increased tenfold this decade to US$107 billion last year, wants to engage right across the continent, even with smaller nations and in sectors beyond oil and mining.
The visit is also meant to reassure Africa that China will not ditch its new allies at a time of global economic slump.
Zanzibar officials said their portion of the aid announced on Sunday would be for IT and television services.
Chinese and Tanzanian officials also signed a memorandum of understanding with China Exim Bank on providing loans for unspecified projects, according to details provided by Tanzania’s State House.
At least 40 Chinese firms invest in Tanzania. In 2007, trade between the two countries rose 48 percent on the previous year to US$800 million.
In the 1970s, China helped build the Tanzania-Zambia railway (Tazara). It recently built a US$40 million, 60,000-seat national sports stadium in Dar es Salaam, which Hu handed over officially to Tanzania on Sunday.
“We gather in this brand new stadium to celebrate its completion. This stadium is the largest Chinese project after the Tazara railway,” Hu said at a ceremony accompanied by acrobats and traditional dancers.
Tanzania is among Africa’s largest aid recipients from China and the two countries have had diplomatic ties since the 1960s. Last year, Tanzania was the only country in Africa to host the Olympic torch relay before the Beijing Games.
Hu was to give a keynote speech on China-Africa relations yesterday before heading to Mauritius, where China has extended more than 800 million yuan in preferential loans since the island formalized diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1972 against the advice of Western powers.
High on the Mauritius government’s wish-list from Hu’s visit is funding for a US$90-million bridge to divert traffic away from the capital’s choked streets. Funding for an airport expansion is said to be a done deal.
Last year, China and Mauritius signed an agreement on a US$730-million Chinese Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, which Mauritius says will generate 40,000 jobs, to be located just north of the capital Port Louis.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS