China aids building of railway in Africa

China is willing to help Africa to realize its dream of building up a high-speed railway network, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his visit to Kenya on Saturday.

"When Premier Li Keqiang visited the headquarters of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the African Union Commission, said Africans have a dream that all the capitals of African countries can be connected by high-speed railway. As a good friend of Africa, China is willing to make its effort to help Africans realize this dream," Wang said.

A subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corp recently completed the $1.83 billion upgrade of 1,344 km of track across Angola, and China Road and Bridge Corp is building a Mombasa-Nairobi railway that eventually will be extended to five other countries at a total cost of $13.8 billion.

"The cooperation of China with Kenya and Africa is cooperation for mutual benefit between developing countries and is the mutual support of friends between each other. We should give priority to the needs of Kenyan's development and people's wishes. This is a principal that we should insist on," said Wang.

Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said China has rich expertise and experience in designing, building and operating a high-speed rail network, so the nation should be an ideal option for any foreign countries that want to build their own high-speed rail lines.

Contact the writer at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/12/2015 page3)