Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa hailed the long-term friendship between China and African countries here today and called on the construction of a new sino-African partnership.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum -- Ministerial Conference Beijing 2000, Mkapa said the forum is a historic occasion and "captures not only the spirit of the long established and cherished bonds of friendship, but also consolidates the already existing wider cooperation in political, social, economic, technical and cultural cooperation".

Mkapa said he interrupted his election campaign back home to come to China as "an expression of faith - faith in China, faith in what China and Africa can achieve together, and faith in the shared and achievable vision for the future".

He said China's active and material support to the de-colonization of Africa will forever bind the two sides together.

Mkapa welcomed the two documents prepared for the forum, the Beijing Declaration and the Sino-African Cooperation Guidelines for Economic and Social Development, which have covered extensively the "aims and goals for establishing a unified front in addressing the negative effects of globalization, while making the best use of the opportunities it offers".

He said as part of the global family, the African people care about globalization, democracy, good governance, pluralism and human rights; they abhor discrimination of any kind and in any form; they crave for justice and cherish the spirit of sovereign equality, dignity and territorial integrity of states - big or small, rich or poor.

Mkapa said unlike the western industrialized nations, the Chinese economy still has similarities to some of the African economies. "China's greatest successes are there for everyone to see, and are successes with many lessons and guideposts in Africa's journey towards modernization," he said.

China and Africa will construct a new partnership that will "contribute positively to Africa's struggle against poverty and disease, against hunger and poor infrastructure; against indebtedness and challenges of globalization," he said.

He spoke highly of China's efforts in boosting Africa's development, and hailed China's generous decision to alleviate or exempt debts of some least developed countries in Africa in the next two years.

He stressed that Africa and China have massive potential for cooperation in exploitation of natural resources, agriculture, medicine, health-care, industry, trade, investment, infrastructure and real estate development. More than 30 years ago, China helped build the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, which has been a strong bond between Africa and China.

"In solidarity let us consolidate our political cooperation. In partnership let us enlarge the scope of economic cooperation for mutual economic advancement. In concert let us increase cultural cooperation for the enrichment of our national spirits. With diligence let us cooperate to expand the frontiers of scientific and technological knowledge in the promotion of all-round modernization. With togetherness may this forum herald a dynamic momentum to our proven, productive and exemplary relations as we stand at the threshold of the new century," Mkapa concluded.

(People’s Daily 10/10/2000)