Since time immemorial African countries have been used to their main trading partners being their colonial masters. In recent years calls for developing countries to trade more among themselves have become louder and more insistent.
Both Tanzania and China are working to correct a trade imbalance that heavily favors Beijing, officials say.
China continues to be Rwanda's top trade partner, according to 2014 trade figures from the Rwanda Revenue Authority.
In her office in Kabete Technical Training Institute in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, Valerie Mbathe Kamanda proudly shows China Daily the sample of machine parts her students made.
Too much emphasis on theory and not enough on practical abilities often leaves vocational and technical students in Africa with a serious handicap in the job market, according to industry and education officials and students themselves.
Chinese engineers are overcoming obstacles of language and culture to help build a Kenyan team to work independently in the use and maintenance of Chinese engineering machinery.
With help from Chinese machinery makers, low-income Kenyan students are learning new job skills.
For about two decades, Africa has achieved rapid development with an average GDP growth rate at about 5 percent, yet there are some hindrances that have held back development.
Technical and vocational skills development is considered a way to develop appropriate job competency and thereby improve labor supply and the employability of the workforce. Consequently, developing these skills has assumed some prominence in the fight against youth unemployment.
As a more confident and assertive China has laid the foundations for a fresh approach to diplomacy over the past year, it and its partners in Africa have been keen to pursue goals for their relationships that President Xi Jinping set out in 2013.
At the start of last year, China-Africa relations were on a high, particularly given that both Gambia and Sao Tome had severed links with Taipei in late 2013 and recognized Beijing. China now in effect has diplomatic relations with 54 out of 55 countries in Africa, and a brick and mortar presence in all of these countries.
Last year brought what might be called a new normal in the development of China-Africa relations.
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