By Godfrey Oukya 3-11-2012
The five East African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda have held discussions with China on partnerships to promote trade, investment and infrastructure development.
The meeting has been held at the East African community headquarters in Tanzanians northern town of Arusha.
China was represented by, Cao Jiachang, the deputy director general of the department of West Asian and African affairs of China ‘s ministry of commerce, who led a 30 man delegation comprising of government officials and Chinese entrepreneurs.
The East African community team was lead by the deputy Secretary general in charge of finance and administration, Jean Claude Nsengiyumya.
‘We discussed areas of potential collaboration, including energy, infrastructure, customs, trade, industrialization, and tourism.’ said Nsengiyumya.
They also discussed potential partnerships in the gender and youth segment, political affairs as well as developing the resources of Lake Victoria basin.
Jiachang said that China is ready to support infrastructure development projects as well as the industrialization of the region.
He said,’ We want to turn the east African community’s resource strength to industrial strength so as to increase the trade volumes from east Africa to China.’
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