The Foreign Affairs Office of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government held the Jiangsu-Africa Cooperation Conference 2023 in Zhenjiang City on August 10, which also marked the China-Africa Local Government Cooperation Forum Jiangsu Sub-forum.
Some 50 participants, including representatives of embassies and consulates from African countries in China as well as those from Jiangsu’s universities, research institutions and social organizations, joined the meeting to discuss cooperation in agriculture, education, health and other fields.
This conference happened as Jiangsu has played an active role in supporting the continent’s development. For example, Zhao Xiaojun, chief physician of the General Surgery Department of Taizhou People's Hospital, are leading the 32nd Chinese medical team to Zanzibar. The team’s 21 members are divided into two groups working at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Unguja and Abdulla Mzee Hospital in Pemba.
“Since the arrival in September last year, the team has treated more than 40,000 patients and carried out more than 20 free clinic services in schools, orphanages and community health centers. These efforts have won the friendship and respect of the island’s residents," said Zhao.
The team, stationed in Zanzibar for one year, helped Kinvunge District Hospital perform its first laparoscopic surgery on August 4. This also marked a new progress supported by Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital, which is part of a cooperation mechanism for Chinese hospitals to pair up with African hospitals.
Since the cooperation mechanism was launched in 2020, Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital has entered into a partnership with Kinvunge District Hospital, Chake Chake Hospital, and Ain Shames University Specialized Hospital, said Wang Yufeng, deputy director of the Jiangsu hospital’s International Cooperation Department.
Such multifaceted cooperation has centered on technical training and talent cultivation to help the three African hospitals improve diagnosis and treatment capacities, effectively benefiting the health of African people, Wang added.
Yang Jing, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office, said Jiangsu has made new achievements in deepening exchange with Africa during the past ten years. More and more cooperation projects are helping local people improve their lives and increase their incomes, facilitating the people-to-people exchange between the two sides.
In his speech, Namibian Ambassador to China Elia George Kaiyamo stressed the importance of cooperation in agriculture. He said, “we hope to learn from China's advanced technology to increase food production, ensure food security, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in agricultural development."
Amid this close cooperation, Nanjing Agricultural University supported Matangi Tisa Village in Kenya's Nakuru County to become the country's first demonstration village for China-Africa agricultural development and poverty reduction on October 18, 2022. The village is among the first batch of demonstration villages in Africa set up by the Belt and Road Initiative/South-South Cooperation Agricultural Education, Science and Technology League.
At the meeting, the university’s vice president Hu Feng said the project included renovation of the village's greenhouse, installation of an irrigation system, and the use of intelligent lighting control technology. The pilot project also selected more than 100 farmers to grow a new variety of beans with the goal to increase the yield from 1,500 kilograms per hectare to 2,700 kilograms.
Jiangsu is behind other capacity-building programs to help reduce poverty and develop agriculture in Africa. For instance, the Freshwater Fisheries Research Centre of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (FFRC), located in Wuxi City, has piloted projects of aquaculture, talent training and poverty alleviation. FFRC aims to build a platform for innovation, research and development of the aquatic seed industry in Africa.
Jing Xiaojun, director of FFRC’s International Cooperation and Education Office, said the center has dispatched 43 experts to 16 African countries since 2012 to provide technical guidance and promote fish breeding, integrated rice-fish farming, and aquatic products processing, giving strong support to the development of local fisheries.
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