LUSAKA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- It is in the best interest for Africa to continue working on enhancing relations with China because it is one sure way of promoting economic growth on the continent, a peace and development specialist has said on Saturday.
Universal Peace Federation-Zambia Chapter Vice Secretary General Lawrence Banda told Xinhua in an interview that China has demonstrated in many ways that it is committed to assisting Africa in meeting it's development goals as well as promoting global peace.
Banda called on African governments to work towards enhancing cooperation between the continent and China through people-to-people exchange programs and trade.
According to him, Zambia has witnessed unprecedented development in the area of infrastructure in the form of roads, hospitals and communication facilities, which made trade and commerce easier to undertake and improved people's well-being.
He cited a range of infrastructure projects that China has helped put in place in Africa as well as China's reform and opening-up policy, which has seen a lot of African products on the Chinese market.
"It is an established fact that infrastructure is key to sound economic growth and China has long been helping Africa with infrastructure projects," Banda said.
"China is has demonstrated that it is possible to attain economic growth in record time and lift millions of people out of poverty. This alone presents great lessons for Africa and gives a lot of hope for the continent to aspire to attain such growth," Banda said.
