The
Vice-President, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, former president, Jakaya
Kikwete and Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Dr Lu Youqing look at a jet
fighter model when they visited an exhibition on the sidelines of the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo
by VPO)
THE Vice-President (VP), Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, held conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping here and agreed on seven projects that will be implemented in three years.
The VP and President Xi also agreed
Thursday on the formation of strategic working plan that will follow-up
the implementation of those projects under the second phase of Forum on
China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
An official from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and International Cooperation said in total, the entire
projects are estimated to cost over 10 billion US dollars. The official
who preferred to remain anonymous since he is not the ministry’s
spokesperson, named the projects as the construction of the central line
to standard gauge, the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone and
revitalisation of Tazara.
“The railway and special zone projects
are estimated to consume 80 per cent of the total costs,” the official
said. Central line will cost about 7.0 billion US dollars while the
special zone project will take 1.0 billion US dollars.
Other projects that fell under the 2nd
stage of FOCAC are infrastructure construction, power transmission
lines, water, road and gas distribution pipelines in Dar es Salaam,
Coast and Mtwara regions.
They also include the extension of
Sheikh Karume International Airport terminal buildings and Mpingaduni
Port and deep sea fishing projects, all located in Zanzibar. “The money
for implementation of the projects will be outsourced by either
concessional loan, public or private partnership of Chinese aid,” the
official said.
Also, Tanzania and China agreed on three
new areas of assistance valued at the tune of 760million US dollars.
The project involved is to build a new 400kVh transmission lines on the
north-east area from Dar es Salaam through Coast, Tanga, Kilimanjaro to
Arusha valued at 680 million US dollars.
“This project is in line with
industrialisation initiative the country is driving at and power
distribution on the national grid after the construction of gas
pipelines,” the foreign affairs officer said.
Another area is e-education where a
major centre will be constructed at Dakawa, Morogoro to facilitate
recording programmes for secondary school subjects. The e-subjects will
later be broadcast via internet to various schools and where there is no
power, solar equipments will be installed.
“The good thing about this project is
that students and teachers will interact during the e-class. A student
can ask questions directly to the teacher and the teacher will respond
back,” the diplomat said.
Also the two sides agreed on enabling
Zanzibar government to work online via e-government platform. During the
summit here which was attended by over 50 heads of state and
government, President Xi pledged 60 billion US dollars over three years
to fund projects in Africa.
The Tanzania delegation here is led by
the VP who is accompanied by Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, the Permanent
Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation.
Others are Tanzanian ambassadors to
China and South Africa. President Xi, who is co-chairing FOCAC, outlined
a broad ten-point development plan driven by China, saying he wanted to
build a relationship of mutual trust and equals.
The president said China would step up
investment in factories manufacturing goods for export in Africa. He
also announced cancelling of debts that have zero interest rates for
least developed countries (LDCs) that matured at the end of 2015.
“China will implement ten cooperation plans with Africa in the next three years,” President Xi said.
These plans aim at addressing three
issues holding back Africa’s development, namely inadequate
infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel and shortage
of funds.
No comments :
Post a Comment