37 African countries sign MoUs with China

China has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs ) with 37 African
countries and the African Union (AU) on the Belt and Road development.

 

Xia Qing, Deputy Head, the National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC), International Cooperation Department, said this in Beijing.

 

The African countries, who signed the MoUs accounted for 70 per cent of
all the 53 African nations that attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that ended on Tuesday.

 

Qing noted that 28 African countries and the AU inked the MoUs during
the summit while the other nine countries had signed before the summit.

 

He said China aims to sign cooperation documents on the Belt and Road
development with all African countries and will steadily push
cooperation to achieve tangible results and benefit African people.

 

So far, China has signed 123 cooperation documents on the Belt and Road
development with 105 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America,
and the South Pacific region, and 26 such documents with 29
international organisations.

 

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) or the Silk Road Economic Belt and
the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road is a development strategy adopted by
the Chinese government.

 

The ‘belt’ refers to the overland interconnecting infrastructure corridors; the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) component.

 

The ‘road’ refers to the sea route corridors; the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) component.

 

The initiative focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian
countries, primarily the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

 

Until 2016 the initiative was known in English as the One Belt and One
Road Initiative (OBOR) but the Chinese came to consider the emphasis on
the word “one” as misleading.