Sino-African cooperation contributes to visible development in Africa

China-Africa cooperation is contributing to visible development in Africa on a win-win base, Kenya's foreign minster Amina Mohamed said Thursday.

In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Amina said with the cooperation, Africa has been able to address many left-behind issues.

"We have a good partnership, which is built on that principle of win-win and it has been able to address many of the issues that had been left behind or ignored or whereby we didn't have development support to get moving," she said.

She observed that a lot had been achieved since the 2015 Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, during which China announced 60 billion U.S. dollars of loans and aid for Africa's development, citing jobs created by Chinese companies operating in the continent.

"Trans-national and trans-regional infrastructure projects especially railways are promoting the much-needed continental integration that is acceptable by all nations," she said.

In Kenya, a China-funded railway line that links East Africa's biggest port Mombasa to the country's capital Nairobi will start trial operations in June. It is expected to be a big boost to economy. Work on the rail is being carried out by a Chinese company and has created tens of thousands of jobs for locals.

Infrastructure construction is what Africa needs as the continent gears up for industrialization, Amina said.

Amina is amongst the five candidates who are seeking to succeed the outgoing AU Commision Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. An election for the top AU post will be held during the summit that ends on Jan. 31.

source: Xinhua