On Monday the China Railway Construction Corp signed a $13.1 billion deal with the Nigerian Ministry of Transport to build a high-speed coastal railway in Nigeria, one of the largest foreign railway projects China has ever signed.

Under the contract, the company will build a 1,385-km single-track line for trains that will run at up to 120 km an hour. “The coastal railway will boost the export of Nigeria’s oil products. Additionally, as a significant part of the Western Africa railway network, it will also drive regional economic development,” said the head of the Railway Bureau of Nigeria.

The construction of this railway will adopt Chinese standards, instead of the British standards that most infrastructure projects in Nigeria used to employ. According to Cao Baogang, deputy manager of the China Civic Engineering Construction Corp, subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corp, this testifies not only to the successful localization of Chinese companies, but also to the growing national strength of China.

“When companies in the developed countries want to enter an emerging market, they need to rely on concessional loans provided by their governments. As China’s national strength grows, loans from the Exim Bank of China will give leverage in negotiations to the export of Chinese standards,” Cao said.

The coastal railway project will create job opportunities for local people. “This is a win-win project. It will offer China a $4 billion deal for the export of equipment. At the same time, it will create about 50,000 direct jobs and 150,000 indirect jobs in the local market, which is significant for Nigeria where the unemployment rate is high,” said Zhang Zongyan, president of the China Railway Construction Corp.

The article is edited and translated from《中铁建获尼日利亚800亿铁路大单》, source: The People’s Daily, author: Lu Yanan.