China and Senegal have resolved to maintain what has been described as one of the important examples of China-Africa cooperation.
A three day visit to Senegal by Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu ended last Sunday with the two sides exchanging vows as regard their commitments to promoting a relationship that was rekindled five years ago when Senegal reestablished ties with the emerging world giant.
Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who arrived in Dakar on Friday, had a tightly packed weekend schedule that saw him visited some Chinese sponsored projects in the West African country, as well as holding fruitful meetings with senior government officials, including President Abdoulaye Wade.
Thanks to the China-Taiwan quandary, African countries have found much needed development partners in the two belligerent neighbors. Dakar and Beijing, after close to ten years, in 2005 restored diplomatic ties. Five years on, “the Senegal-China relations have been advancing with big strides and the two countries have implemented a series of cooperation projects, becoming one of the important examples of China-Africa cooperation,” recalled Senegal’s Prime Minister, Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye, at a meeting on Friday with the visiting Chinese Vice Premier.
Prime Minister Ndiaye stressed that Senegal was sincerely grateful for China's support for its economic and social development and expressed willingness to work with the Asian giant in the interest of furthering bilateral ties.
China has been providing highly needed financial assistance to Senegal, in exchange for the West African nation’s diplomatic support for China in its one China policy campaign.
While in Dakar, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu was scheduled to visit a major project being sponsored by China, the construction of a national Grand Theatre. According to Senegal’s ambassador to Beijing, Pape Khalilou Fall, as reported by the pro-government daily Le Soleil, the imposing building which is at its final stage of construction is being sponsored through a "non-repayable grants". The Chinese Vice Premier also scheduled to discuss the rehabilitation of 11 regional stadiums funded by China as well as a minibus manufacturing factory situated outside Dakar.
Vice Premier Hui and Prime Minister Ndiaye in their meeting agreed that the two countries should further strengthen bilateral relations and two-way exchanges in various fields, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, reported, adding that China is very delighted to see that both countries have made remarkable achievements in economic and trade cooperation, as well as in their win-win cooperation in agriculture, fishery, telecommunications and infrastructure.
A very important highlight of Vice Premier Hui Liangyu’s weekend visit to Dakar, which marked the end of a five nation Africa tour, was the signing, among a number of bilateral cooperation agreements, of an important power loan agreement between the two countries.
The loan, amounting to 513 million Yuan (about 35 billion FCFA), is earmarked for the rehabilitation and extension of the distribution of electricity in the region of Dakar. It is said to be accounting for the second phase of an already running project, which will see the extension of the network of the national power company, SENELEC, to new neighborhoods in the areas concerned.
Energy has been among Senegal’s pressing problems of late, with chronic power cuts impacting enormously on the country’s economy and threatening civil liberties.
As part of his New Year message, President Wade hinted a major deal with the Chinese, which he said was aimed at solving the power issue once and for all.
The power loan agreement signed on Friday is envisaged to stabilize and improve the quality of electricity for some 300,000 households while connecting for the first time 150,000 households to the grid.
“China is willing to continue working with Senegal to tap potential for bilateral cooperation to benefit the people of both countries, Vice Premier Hui said at the Friday meeting with Prime Minister Ndiaye.
Over the past five years, both countries have maintained close high-level contacts, deepened mutual understanding, consolidated mutual political trust, maintained close coordination and cooperation in international affairs and extended each other support on issues that concern their major interests, he added.
Another agreement signed on Friday was a grant from China, amounting 60 million yuan (4.5 billion FCFA). Accordingly, this will be devoted to projects, based on practical arrangements for implementation as determined by the mutual agreement of the two countries.