high-level interview: thank you china for inviting us to participate in the "ten partners initiative" - interview with zambian president hichilema
2024-09-13
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xinhua news agency, beijing, september 12high-level interview | thank you china for inviting us to participate in the "ten partners initiative" - interview with zambian president hichilema
xinhua news agency reporter shi xiaomeng, peng lijun, xia zilin
"i would like to thank president xi jinping, the chinese government and the chinese people for inviting us to participate in the 'ten partners initiative'," said zambian president hakainde hichilema in a joint exclusive interview with chinese media in beijing recently.
hichilema attended the beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation held from september 4 to 6. in a joint interview with chinese media before leaving china, he said that the "ten partnership actions" proposed by president xi jinping at the summit focused on economic development, investment and trade, education, culture, food and energy security, and fully explained how africa and china can work together on the road to development.
hichilema said africa can provide key support for the global green transformation. the shift to a green economy and green energy will make the world's development safer and more sustainable, benefiting future generations. in the process, more jobs will be created in the african continent and china, and the benefits will go beyond africa and china.
hichilema said that for many years, the development of the "global south" generally lagged behind. "but now the situation has changed. the "global south" can do more within its own scope."
he pointed out that some countries in the "global south" have advanced technologies and are willing to share them; countries in the "global south" have rich natural resources. "now, what we need to do is to use the resources we have more efficiently."
hichilema has visited china many times. he shared his feelings when he visited the pudong new area in shanghai, china, and lamented that "china's development is too fast", especially when he visited again after leaving for a period of time, this feeling was even stronger.
speaking of zambia-china relations, hichilema said: "over the years, we have done a lot of mutually beneficial things for the zambian and chinese people."
on the morning of september 4, president xi jinping, tanzanian president hassan and zambian president hichilema jointly witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding on the tanzania-zambia railway activation project.
in the 1970s, tens of thousands of chinese experts and technicians traveled across the ocean to africa, worked side by side with the people of tanzania and zambia, and built the tanzania-zambia railway, known as the "road of friendship" and the "road of freedom", with their sweat, blood and even their lives. the 1,860.5-kilometer-long tanzania-zambia railway was started in october 1970 and officially handed over to the governments of tanzania and zambia in july 1976.
hichilema said that the tanzania-zambia railway is a valuable asset and the signing of the memorandum of understanding on the activation of the tanzania-zambia railway project "is a very, very important task and a milestone."
"the signing of the memorandum of understanding will open africa's doors in terms of logistics, trade and market access. our producers of goods and services can enter different markets. this will not only benefit tanzania, zambia and china, but also the region and the world," said hichilema.
hichilema said that although zambia is a landlocked country, it is adjacent to many countries and has the strategic potential to become a logistics hub. he welcomes more chinese investors to turn their attention to zambia.
