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President Samia Suluhu Hassan will visit China in September for the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (Focac), where she is expected to sign new loan deals as Tanzania begins to implement a freshly revised foreign policy. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, China confirmed its willingness to enter into new project sponsorship pacts with Tanzania during a working visit by Minister January Makamba to Beijing last weekend.
The ministry said in a statement that Mr Makamba held talks with the director of China’s International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) Luo Zhaohui as part of his mission to lay the groundwork for Ms Samia’s visit.
It quoted Mr Luo as saying there was a “high probability” that President Samia would ink several new strategic aid agreements while in the China capital for Focac involving heads of State, cabinet ministers and other senior government executives.
“I can pledge that we will finance the next phase of our bilateral projects that are already underway in Tanzania along with new strategic projects that you have requested,” the CIDCA chief stated.
The Focac conference, which was first held in 2000, incorporates 53 African countries with the exception of Eswatini. This year’s event ends a hiatus of three years since the last one in Dakar, Senegal in 2019, and is expected to be attended by many African leaders as China seeks to expand its footprint across the continent further.
Ms Samia’s only previous visit to Beijing as Tanzanian president was in November 2022 when she was the first African leader invited by President Xi Jinping after his re-election as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for a third term. A total of 15 bilateral agreements were signed during that trip covering, among other areas, an upgrade of the Chinese-built Tanzania-Zambia Railway — Business Insider Africa.
Online Reporter