China-Africa Relations: China helping Rwanda with infrastructure dev't

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Visitors to Rwanda often speak of its beautiful rolling landscape -- it's affectionately known as the land of a thousand hills. But many are also surprised by how modern its roads have become. Reporter He Weiwei takes us for a ride through the capital.

Frank is a bus driver in Kigali. For the past 12 years, he's been driving around the country's capital and has witnessed one of the city's biggest accomplishments: its road improvement.

FRANK KASADA BUS DRIVER "The road was bad. We were taking a lot of time to reach the next stop, but now it only takes a few minutes, because the roads are good."

The roads that Frank now drives on are two-way roads with two lanes on each side. They were constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, or CRBC, as part of Kigali's urban road upgrading project.

"Back in the years, the road was not good, it was not even facilitated with major transportation. People found it hard to do daily business activities."

"With the new upgraded road, we can see safety on the road, they are wide enough now. The passengers (pedestrians) have their own way to move around."

CRBC has been conducting road construction projects in Rwanda since 1974. So far it has built over one thousand kilometers of roads in the country, accounting for 70% of the country's asphalt.

The company is now providing six thousand jobs for local people, a big contribution to employment.

LI JIANBO, GENERAL DIRECTOR KIGALI OFFICE, CHINA ROAD & BRIDGE CORP. "We're the largest foreign company in Rwanda. Here you can find young employees working after their fathers and in some cases grandfathers. Three generations in the same company."

The urban road project has received the highest awards of the local government in terms of environmental protection and engineering quality.

JEAN D'AMOUR RWUNGUKO ACTING CITY ENGINEER, CITY OF KIGALI "We follow up the work that's been doneand find that the quality is very super. Things are moving very well with this project."

The entire project is planned to be completed by next year, shaping a larger road network for the capital and surrounding areas.

He Weiwei, CGTN, the city of Kigali, Rwanda.