South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The Deputy Director-General Foreign Affairs Office of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government of China, Zhang Yaxi urged African Journalists who visited Chongqing city to enhance mutual understanding between China and Africa
“I hope that this visit to Chongqing will help you gain a deeper understanding of China and Chongqing,” Zhang said that during the visit of 35 journalists from 31 African countries to Chongqing city
She said that the long-standing friendship between China and Africa has made the two sides good partners on the road to development and rejuvenation, and fellow travelers on the path to modernization.
“Let us work together to promote the “Modernization on Six Aspects” and the “Ten Partnership Actions for Modernization” and build an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era,” Zhang said.
About 35 journalists from 31 African countries visited Chongqing on the invitation of the Department of Press, Communication and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
Zhang said that Chongqing has a recorded history of over 3,000 years, adding the city enjoys strategic location advantages, being a key link between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
“In April of this year, during his visit to Chongqing, President Xi Jinping required us to build Chongqing into a key strategic fulcrum for western development in the new era and a comprehensive hub for inland openness, assigning Chongqing new missions and strategic roles,” she disclosed.
Zhang said that Chongqing has developed multiple logistics corridors for opening up such as accessing the world to the east via the Yangtze River Golden Shipping Route, connecting to Europe to the west via the China-Europe Railway Express, and reaching Southeast Asia to the south via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
Chongqing is China’s first city to establish five types of national logistics hubs (river terminal, inland port, airport, producer services, and trade services). Additionally, national-level platforms such as the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity and the China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone continue to enhance the city’s openness.
Zhang said that Chongqing is a major modern manufacturing base in China, with a strong industrial foundation and all 31 manufacturing categories.
She noted that they are working to develop the “3+3+6+18” system for modern manufacturing clusters, focusing on building three leading industry clusters each worth over RMB 1 trillion, namely intelligent connected new energy vehicles, next-generation electronics, and advanced materials.
In recent years, Chongqing’s economy has maintained rapid growth, achieving a 6.1% increase in GDP in 2023, reaching a total of over RMB3 trillion. In the first half of this year, the city’s GDP reached RMB1.5 trillion, a 6.1% year-on-year increase.
Zhang said that Chongqing has traded with 224 countries and regions worldwide and is home to 10 consulates-general.
She said that the city has established sister-city relationships with 56 cities around the world, adding that there are 69 joint education institutions and programs, and six international news agencies based in Chongqing.
“Chongqing’s friendly exchanges and cooperation with Africa have produced many highlights: Mpumalanga Province in South Africa, Aswan Province in Egypt, N’Djamena in Chad, and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia are all sister cities or provinces of Chongqing,” Zhang revealed.
Zhang said that companies in Chongqing have also participated in many infrastructure projects in Africa, such as the control tower project of Bangui-M’poko International Airport in the Central African Republic, which was just completed in August 2024 by China Railway No. 11 Bureau.