China’s Hu in Tanzania on four-nation Africa tour

Published on February 16, 2009 by brooks | This story has been viewed 231 views

Sun, Feb 15 12:38 PM

China’s President Hu Jintao began a visit to Tanzania on Sunday on a four-nation tour to cement Beijing’s links to Africa despite the global slowdown.

After earlier visiting Mali and Senegal, Hu was met by trumpets and dancers in Dar es Salaam.

“The traditional friendship between China and Tanzania was jointly forged by the older generation of leaders in both countries,” he said, in the presence of Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete, on arrival late on Saturday.

“It can be viewed as an exemplary relationship of sincerity, solidarity and cooperation between China and an African country, and for that matter between two developing countries.”

After Tanzania, Hu goes to the Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius in a carefully-selected tour of nations that rank outside Africa’s economic and resource heavyweights.

Analysts say it is a deliberate message that Beijing, whose trade with Africa has shot up tenfold this decade to $107 billion last year, wants to engage right across the continent, even with smaller nations and in sectors beyond oil and mining.

The visit is also meant to reassure Africa that China will not ditch its new allies at a time of global economic slump.

In Tanzania on Sunday, Hu was to sign various economic deals with Kikwete, including a memorandum of understanding with China’s EXIM Bank on providing loans for various unspecified projects, according to a government programme.

In Senegal, he signed $90 million in aid and loan deals, and pledged to buy 10,000 tonnes of peanut oil, media said.

In Mali, he laid the first brick of a “Friendship Bridge” that he termed China’s largest gift to West Africa.

At least 40 Chinese firms invest in Tanzania, including a textile mill in Dar es Salaam.

According to Chinese government data, Beijing’s direct investment in Tanzania stood at $114 million by 2008.

In 2007, trade between the two countries rose 48 percent on the previous year to $800 million.

Tanzania’s exports to China rose 31 percent to $200 million in the same period. China lets more than 450 different Tanzanian goods into its markets duty-free.

In the 1970s, China helped build the Tanzania-Zambia railway. It recently built a 60,000 seat-national sports stadium worth more than $40 million in Dar es Salaam, which Hu was scheduled to officially hand over to Tanzania.

Tanzania is among Africa’s largest aid recipients from China and the two countries have had diplomatic ties since the 1960s. In 2008, Tanzania was the only country in Africa to host the Olympic torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games.

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