Chinese President Xi Jinping jetted into Dar es Salaam yesterday for a two-day state visit to Tanzania at the invitation of President Jakaya Kikwete.
Highlights of the historic VIP visit are expected to include the inking of 17 bilateral agreements and the inauguration of Mwalimu Nyerere International Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania is only the second country – after Russia – for Xi to visit during his first foreign trip since he assumed the Chinese presidency earlier this month.
He arrived at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in the afternoon accompanied by First Lady Peng LIyuan and several high-ranking Chinese government officials.
President Xi was received by his President Kikwete and a line-up of other dignitaries including Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Said Meck Sadick, Chief of Defence Forces General Davis Mwamunyange, Inspector General of Police Said Mwema and members of the diplomatic corps.
Adding colour to the welcoming ceremony were traditional dance troupes and a 21-gun salute, after which President Xi inspected a guard of honour before leaving for State House for official talks with his host.
The talks are widely expected to revolve around cooperation between Tanzania and China, leading to the signing of bilateral cooperation agreements on the economy, trade and culture.
China established diplomatic relations with then Tanganyika in 1961 and with Zanzibar in 1963 and took April 26, 1964, the day Tanganyika and Zanzibar came together to form Tanzania, as the date of having diplomatic relations with the United Republic of Tanzania.
Relations between the two countries have since witnessed healthy and smooth development, with fruitful results achieved in sectors like trade, culture, education and health.
Two-way trade between the countries reached US$2.47 billion last year, a 15.2 per cent increase from 2011.
Meanwhile, leaders of the world’s leading emerging economies will meet soon to seek ways of consolidating their ties and forge new trade links with other parts of the world.
Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known by the acronym BRICS, will gather in South Africa in a move seen as a desire to deepen their relations with the African continent.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the BRICS bloc boasts roughly one third of the world’s total population and more than a quarter of the world’s land area. It was estimated to have a combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$13.6 trillion in 2011, accounting for 19.5 per cent of the world’s total.
From 2001 to 2010, inter-BRICS trade shot up at an average annual growth rate of 28 per cent, with total trade among the five countries standing at US$230 billion in 2010.
Elly Twineyo, a development consultant at the Uganda Management Institute, one of the country’s major academic institutions, told Xinhua in a recent interview that Africa ought to embrace all these new relations as it seeks to pull millions of its people out of poverty.
“This relationship is important because Africa has no choice but to open up to other parts of the world,” he said, adding: “We need a capital solution to Africa’s problems. The capital solution for Africa is to look at remittances from our people abroad; the other solution is Foreign Direct Investment which comes in with technology and also cash.”
The consultant argued that while these relations could open up market opportunities for Africa, African politicians and policy makers ought to know that African countries must be strategic in dealing with the BRICS just as they should with any foreign partners.
He said it was only when African countries championed their development interests that they would mutually benefit from emerging relations with the likes of BRICS. source The guardian
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