Two Chinese companies are at the heart of the 1.3 billion euro contract that Tanzania and China have just signed for the construction of a railway line between the main port of Tanzania and neighboring countries. Chinese cooperation is once again dressing up in its infrastructural diplomacy, alongside that of vaccines, to widen the path of its cooperation in Africa. With broadcast on state television, the contract was signed by President John Magufuli and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Proof of the friendship between China and Tanzania”
The agreement provides for the construction of a new section of a huge 2,561 kilometer railway line. This will eventually link the economic capital Dar es Salaam, on the Indian Ocean, to neighboring countries, namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, via the city of Mwanza , located on Lake Victoria. The contract is “proof of the friendship between Tanzania and China,” he added, inviting the two Chinese companies to present their offers for the last two phases of the project. The minister also called on China to help the Tanzanian government finance this project. The first 700 kilometers of this line, from Dar es Salaam, are currently being built by the Turkish company Yapi Merkezi. On an official visit for two days, Wang explained that the ties between Tanzania and China are strengthening.
After the railroad, the power plant and … the debt
Chinese companies, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Construction Limited, will have to build 341 kilometers of rail between Mwanza and Isaka in northwestern Tanzania, Tanzanian Transport Minister Leonard Chamuhiro said. Chinese companies have built several major infrastructures in Tanzania, bundling projects valued at around $ 10 billion. “Tanzania is right to develop big projects because it is impossible to develop without having good infrastructure,” Wang said. After the signing of this contract, President Magufuli explained that he had asked for its support from China to finance the construction of a controversial hydroelectric power station in the Selous Nature Reserve, a World Heritage Site. “I have also asked China to cancel certain debts,” added the Tanzanian president.
China is the largest investor in Africa and has injected around $ 148 billion in the construction of rail lines, ports and airports, in exchange for access to some of the continent’s resources, such as petroleum, copper and cobalt, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University. These projects are financed by giant loans granted by China, but Beijing is criticized for granting these credits too easily to poor countries, without carefully examining their repayment capacity.
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