The Belt and Road Initiative incarnates a new idea of open, inclusive and mutually beneficial cooperation, said Chinese Ambassador to Morocco Sun Shuzhong recently.[Special Coverage]
In an interview with Xinhua on the occasion of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on May 14 and 15, Sun said a new bridge between the very promising economic circle of East Asia and the advanced European economies will lead to the development of various countries, the improvement of the lives of their people and the promotion of peace and stability in the region.
The initiative aims to reach ambitious goals through a shared development of all the adherent countries, he said, underlining that five-year action plans and other long-term plans will be elaborated with every party to determine the priority sectors and structuring projects and to design road maps and accompanying measures to implement them.
The Chinese diplomat said his country has always attached great importance to its cooperation with Africa, citing the success of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held in Johannesburg in 2015 to establish a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership between China and Africa.
"China announced also 60 billion U.S. dollars unilateral financial support to Africa. Since then, encouraging progress has been made. 243 new agreements have been signed valued at 50.7 billion U.S. dollars, including 91 percent in the form of foreign direct investment or commercial loans," he underlined.
Regarding Morocco's contribution to this large-scale project, which insists on mutual exchange and win-win cooperation, Sun underscored that since the launching of the Belt and Road Initiative, Morocco has been among its first parties, stressing that the Chinese initiative and the kingdom's Industrial Acceleration Plan 2014-2020 go hand-in-hand.
These two platforms will enable the two countries to further consolidate their cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, railways and energy as evidenced by the Mohammed VI Bridge (the longest cable-stayed bridge in Africa), Noor solar complex projects and soon Mohamed VI Tangier Tech City and a lot more.
"One year after the royal visit to China, the Chinese-Moroccan cooperation has witnessed a great growth with abundant concrete results. We can expect a closer partnership between China and Morocco," he underlined.
The Chinese diplomat underlined that a deeper China-Africa cooperation will enable Africa to achieve its goals of industrialization, modernization, economic development and improvement of the well-being of its population, through accelerating the construction of its infrastructure, improving its business environment and providing more technological, financial and human support.
"Given these various opportunities, every innovation in the cooperation model will be in the best interest of China, Morocco and other African countries for better complementarity, greater synergies, and therefore, win-win results," Sun concluded.
