President Jakaya Mrisho
Kikwete and his guest Chinese President Xi Jinping take a souvenir photo with
their wives before the Chinese leader handed over the centre to Tanzania and
made his maiden speech in his first visit to Africa.
President
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and his guest Chinese President Xi Jinping applaud and
later take their seats
* China's new president in
Africa on first foreign trip
* Officials reject
accusations of new colonialism
* After Tanzania, Xi heads
to South Africa, Congo
By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala
and George Obulutsa
DAR ES SALAAM, March 25
(Reuters) - China's new president told Africans on Monday he wanted a
relationship of equals that would help the continent develop, responding to
concerns that Beijing is only interested in shipping out its raw
materials.
On the first stop on an
African tour that will include a BRICS summit of major emerging economies, Xi
Jinping told Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete that China's involvement in
Africa would help the continent grow richer.
"China sincerely hopes to see faster development in African
countries and a better life for African people," Xi said in a speech laying out
China's policy on Africa, delivered at a conference centre in Dar es Salaam
built with Chinese money.
Renewing an offer of $20
billion of loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015, Xi pledged to "help African
countries turn resource endowment into development strength and achieve
independent and sustainable development".
Africans broadly see China
as a healthy counterbalance to Western influence but, as ties mature, there are
growing calls from policymakers and economists for a more balanced trade
deal.
"China will continue to
offer, as always, necessary assistance to Africa with no political strings
attached," Xi said to applause. "We get on well and treat each others as
equals."
But gratitude for that aid
is increasingly tinged with resentment about the way Chinese companies operate
in Africa where industrial complexes staffed exclusively by Chinese workers have
occasionally provoked riots by locals looking for work.
Countering concerns that
Africa is not benefitting from developing skills or technology from Chinese
investment, Xi said China would train 30,000 African professionals, offer 18,000
scholarships to African students and "increase technology transfer and
experience".
"ALL-WEATHER
FRIENDS"
"The Sino-Tanzania
relationship has endured a lot," said Tanzania's Kikwete, whose nation built
close ties with China in the early years after independence from the British in
1964. "Now we have become all-weather friends."
China built a railway
linking Tanzania and Zambia in the 1960s and early early
1970s.
The two leaders witnessed
the signing of trade and other deals, including plans to co-develop a new port
and industrial zone complex, a loan for communications infrastructure and an
interest free loan to the government. No details were given on the size of the
loans or the industrial projects.
Xi's next stop is South
Africa for a BRICS summit on Tuesday and Wednesday where he could endorse plans
for a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infrastructure
bank.
Those proposals respond to
frustrations among emerging markets at
having to rely on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are seen
as reflecting the interests of the United States and other industrialised
nations.
Nigeria's central bank
governor, Lamido Sanusi, wrote in the Financial Times this month that the trade
imbalance between China and Africa was "the essence of colonialism" and
cautioned the continent was vulnerable to a new form of
imperialism.
China is keen not to be
perceived as an imperial master.
"The legacy of (the) West
is the feeling that Africa should thank them, and that Africa should recognise
that it is not as good as the West," Zhong Jianhua, China's special envoy to
Africa, said before Xi's trip. "That is not acceptable."
Lu Shaye, head of the
Chinese Foreign Ministry's African affairs department, said it was the West
which was only interested in African resources, not China.
"What have Western
countries done for Africa in the 50 years since independence? Nothing. All they
have done is criticise China and that is unfair," he told a Hong Kong television
station, in remarks carried on the ministry's website.
Xi's African tour ends in
Republic of Congo, from
where China imported 5.4 billion tonnes of oil last year, just 2 percent of its
total oil imports, but potentially the source of a lot more.na issa michuzi
matukio
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