China urges more countries to help improve African infrastructure

China hopes more countries can show sincerity while assisting infrastructure construction in Africa, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Hua Chunying made the comment after the African Union (AU) and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on continental transport, high speed rail, aviation, highways and industrialization.

The signing ceremony took place on Tuesday at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 24th AU summit.

"The MoU shows China wants to translate President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang's cooperation concept with Africa into reality, building railway, road and regional aviation networks," Hua said at a daily news briefing.

"This is also our commitment to enhance the continent's connectivity and integration, breaking the bottleneck of its development and realize sustainable development," she said.

"To get rich, build a road first." This is important experience of China's reform and opening-up and rapid economic development over the past three decades. "It will also prove true for Africa," Hua said.

China had completed 1,046 projects in Africa, building 2,233 kilometers of railways, 3,530 kilometers of roads, she said.

Hua called on more countries to show their sincerity like China to better infrastructure construction in Africa and work with China to help African nations to achieve sustainable development.