Xi to ink US$10bn port development project during Tanzania visit

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-03-25

Xi Jinping, center, in Moscow on March 22, two days before he is set to arrive
 in Tanzania as part of the Chinese president's first official visit abroad.
(Photo/Xinhua)

China is set to sign a memorandum of cooperation to invest US$10 billion to develop a key port in Tanzania, reports the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald.

According to the Tanzania ambassador to China, Philip Marmo, Communist Party general secretary and newly appointed Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to sign the comprehensive development cooperation memorandum after his arrival in Tanzania on Sunday. The visit is part of a historic tour that also includes stops in Russia, South Africa and the Republic of Congo.

The project will reportedly involve developing the Tanzanian port of Bagamoyo, one of the most important trading ports along the East African coast. Once completed, the port will open up Tanzania's trade with China, as well as with Middle Eastern and European markets.

The project is said to be one of a dozen or so memorandums of cooperation for infrastructure development in Tanzania that will be signed by Xi during the trip.

Bilateral relations between China and Tanzania date back to the late 1960s, when Communist Party leader Mao Zedong provided resources to build the Tazara railway from Zambia to Tanzania's Dar es Salaam.

At a press conference ahead of Xi's diplomatic visits on March 20, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told journalists that China and Tanzania are "all-weather friends" whose 49 years of bilateral relations have yielded "fruitful results" in areas including trade, cultural exchanges, education and public health.

During his visit to Tanzania, Xi will also meet Tanzanian president Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Zanzibarian president Ali Mohamed Shein, deliver a speech at the Nyerere International Convention Center, and lay a wreath at the cemetery for Chinese experts in Tanzania.　

References:

Xi Jinping　　習近平

Mao Zedong　　毛澤東