Scholars, officials of China, Tanzania vow to advance South-South cooperation

Published: June 11,2023

Scholars and officials from China and Tanzania attended a seminar Wednesday with both sides pledging to promote South-South cooperation.

The one-day seminar, themed “Nyerere, China and South-South Cooperation: Friendship, Solidarity, and Common Development,” was held in Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam on the occasion of the inauguration of the Center for Julius Nyerere and African Liberation Movement Studies. It was organized by the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University, the Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania and the Confucius Institute at the University of Dar es Salaam.

“China and Africa have maintained their solidarity and cooperation, and they will definitely explore a new path for their development to achieve modernization and common prosperity,” said Omar Mjenga, president and chief executive officer of the Center for International Policy-Africa (CIP-Africa) at the seminar.

No country can handle the enormous challenges facing humankind on its own, he said, adding that the partnership between China and Africa is important.

Chen Mingjian, the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, said China will deepen cooperation with Tanzania and other African countries in such sectors as politics, economy, culture, education, and science and technology.

“Those landmark projects supported by China, including the library of the University of Dar esSalaam, the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School and Kagera Technical and Vocational College have been completed and put into operation, marking new achievements of China-Tanzania cooperation,” she said. “China is willing to cooperate with Tanzania in more and more areas to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win development goals.”

She also said China and Tanzania will work together through South-South cooperation to deepen the friendship and realize mutual development.

Rwekaza Mukandala, chairman of Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania and former vice-chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, said China has been one of Tanzania’s sources of development assistance since the early 1960s.

Bernadeta Killian, the deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, said her university has maintained cooperation with Zhejiang Normal University for 10 years after they signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the Confucius Institute in the country in 2013.

“I must say that the Confucius Institute has grown from strength to strength from the time it was established to now. It has recorded numerous impressive achievements and milestones,” she said.

“The academia from both China and Africa are jointly working together to strengthen relations of the two countries, so as to achieve the goals of common development in the new era for building a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future,” said Liu Hongwu, director of the Institute of African Studies of Zhejiang Normal University. 

Xinhua