Infrastructure connectivity is one of the eight major initiatives with African countries that China announced in the 2018 China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit last September.
The initiative has been put into practice with many projects being launched in Africa, with some seeing completion. China's infrastructure footprints can now be seen almost everywhere in Africa, said officials at the China-Africa Dialogue on Infrastructure and Financing Cooperation in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, on Thursday.
To implement the infrastructure initiative, China formulated a China-Africa infrastructure cooperation plan with the African Union and decided to support Chinese companies in participating in Africa's infrastructure development.
The country also helped African countries make better use of financial resources, providing diversified financing channels.
Chinese companies' participation in Africa's infrastructure building
In recent years, Chinese companies have built a number of infrastructure projects such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway and the natural gas pipelines in Tanzania.
These major projects have improved the production and living conditions of the African people while improving the international management capabilities of the Chinese enterprises, said Hao Peng, head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway opens to traffic, May 31, 2017. /VCG Photo
A group of African local technical workers and talents gained the training opportunities and a globally interconnected partnership was built in the process, said Hao.
Meanwhile, Hunan Province, which hosts the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, has witnessed many successful cases in the infrastructure initiative and played an important role in African construction projects.
Companies in Hunan, including Hunan Construction Engineering Group, 23rd Metallurgical Construction Group, Hunan Communication and Water Conservancy Group, have all conducted connectivity projects with Africa and delivered fruitful results, said Chen Fei, vice governor of Hunan Province.
The signing ceremony for China-Africa infrastructure cooperation project, June 27, 2019. /Source: China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo organizer
New projects signed
At the dialogue meeting, a signing ceremony for China-Africa infrastructure cooperation project was held.
A total of 13 projects including the Ibom Power Plant phase II project in Nigeria, the rural power grid project in Ghana, the Amaria Hydropower Plant project in Guinea and the International Specialized Hospital of Uganda (ISHU) project were signed, with a value of approximately 2.571 billion U.S. dollars.
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