Interview: Africa benefits much from China, says Tanzanian expert

DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Africa, including Tanzania, has benefited a lot from China's development and cooperation since the founding of the New China 75 years ago, Joseph Kahama, secretary general of the Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association, told Xinhua ahead of China's National Day.

Since its founding on Oct. 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China has shown best examples to Tanzania, Africa as well as the world via remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation and controlling and managing pandemics such as the COVID-19, among other landmark successes.

"China has lifted nearly 800 million rural people out of poverty. This is a great achievement in a very short period of 75 years," he said, adding that China has lifted so many people out of poverty while keeping helping other countries develop.

Kahama highlighted that over the past 75 years, China has become the world's second-largest economy.

Meanwhile, on the international stage, China has proven that by holding its policy of not interfering in other countries' internal affairs, it has always been a bearer of peace and a beacon of hope for many countries, he said.

"China has been able to advance the idea of building a multipolar world, where the voices of the weak and the poor are heard," said Kahama.

China has been a great friend of African countries for decades, said Kahama, citing the construction of the TAZARA (Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority) railway as an example.

Built in the 1970s, the TAZARA railway is one of China's earliest and largest overseas aid projects.

"African countries are all-weather friends of China," as all African countries having diplomatic relations with China have grown into its strategic partners through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, he said.

As for the Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association, Kahama said that funded by friends in China, the association has been doing a lot of good work, including drilling water wells across Tanzania, working together with Chinese medical teams in the country, building schools and laboratories, and providing fertilizers to farmers.

"We've given scholarships to Tanzanian students to study in China. We've built sports sitting galleries for sports fields and stadiums," added Kahama.

He said the association's role was anchored in building and maintaining this great relationship between Tanzanians and their Chinese friends.