27.01.2015 14:04
By Addis Getachew.
The African Union (AU) and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), according to which the latter would become the main partner in the implementation of the African bloc's 50-year development strategy.
Under the terms of the MoU, China will help implement infrastructural and industrial projects that the AU Commission has laid down in its Agenda 2063 – a multi-sectoral initiative that aims to modernize Africa within the next 50 years.
The deal was signed by AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
"Last year there was a very high-level visit by the premier of China [Li Keqiang] and we discussed what is important for Africa to achieve its vision," Dlamini-Zuma said.
"We discussed numerous areas at the continental level – mainly infrastructure and industry – and between then and now we came up with this MoU," she added.
"High-speed railways are very critical because we are a huge continent," she said, adding that high-speed rail lines would link "all our cities and commercial centers."
But the MoU is not only about railway lines, she stressed. It is also about cooperation with China on industry, highway building, research and manufacturing, among other fields.
"This is the first agreement that we have signed on the basis of Agenda 2063; this long-term project will benefit both the peoples of Africa and China," she said.
"It will also accelerate [African] integration," she noted, describing the agreement as "the most substantive project the AU has with China."
Ming, for his part, who is in Addis Ababa to attend the 24th AU Summit of Heads of State and Government later this month, said that the African economy was "taking off."
"It is in the early days of industrialization," he asserted, describing the recent agreement as the "document of the century" in terms of Sino-Africa cooperation.
www.aa.com.tr/en - Addis Ababa