Tanzanian National Assembly Speaker Tulia Ackson outlined her expectations for bilateral cooperation with China on Tuesday and hailed the mutual trust and respect that underpins the friendly relationship between the two sides.
Ackson said she expects the 2024 Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), scheduled for Sept. 4-6, to be an opportunity for African countries to learn from China's best practices and rich experience in infrastructure development and science and technology.
"Most of the African countries, the challenges that they are going through are more or less similar. I would think they'll be talking about infrastructural development and seeing how far China has gone in this area, so they might want to learn one thing or two, and then see how China can offer its services to those countries. The other area would be science and technology, because this area also China has made a lot of progress," Ackson, who is also President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union of Tanzania, said in an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Beijing.
As 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Tanzania, Ackson highlighted the contributions Chinese people have made to her country's infrastructure and expressed confidence in the lasting partnership between the two nations.
"Looking now at 60 years and how far we have gone, I'll give you one example that stands out. We have the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, which was constructed then by Chinese people. And a number of them lost their lives in the course of that, because it was a really difficult time. But still, as two nations, they said, 'We must do this.' Why? Because there was a need to develop people, and you want to be able to make infrastructure, facilitate the development of the people for the entire Southern African geographical area. I believe this shows that we have always been working together and we will keep working together. Now it's 60 years. We look forward to celebrating centenary, 100 years," she said.
Ackson underscored the fact that China and Tanzania have always been equal partners who trust and respect each other.
"We have been trading partners for a long time and right now, China is one of the largest investors in the country. So, you have companies from China now not just for the rail, but for other sectors as well. You talk about education, you talk about health, you talk about agriculture. Right now, Tanzania, we are going through reforms in our agricultural sector. We have been cooperating, not in a way that one of the nations feels smaller or feels subservient to the other. We have been respecting each other, we have been treating each other with mutual trust," she said.
Ackson said she looks forward to exploring more way to cooperate with China both at the bilateral and multilateral levels during next week's FOCAC meeting.
"Under FOCAC, there are a number of issues that we can work together. So, if I talk about Tanzania, I would say we have a very long coastline and we look forward to the investments that are under consideration in terms of development of our ports. And I think we have a mutual understanding of supporting each other for the things that we think they are common to both our people. I see that growing to higher levels of being together, but also cooperating in other issues that come at multilateral level, including the issue of peace and security. So, I believe that is one of the areas where the two countries can work together to make sure these regions, sub-regions and of course internationally to work together to make sure peace reigns," said the speaker.
Tanzanian National Assembly Speaker expects closer ties with China
Tanzanian National Assembly Speaker expects closer ties with China
