John Andigo, a taxi driver in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, said that it is so convenient to take the expressway! In the past, it took 2 hours to drive from the airport to the city, and even longer in traffic jams. Now it only takes 20 minutes. The expressway mentioned by Andigo connects the urban area of Nairobi with the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, with a total length of 27.1 kilometers. It was invested, developed and constructed by Chinese enterprises, and was officially put into operation at the end of July last year.

To develop, it is necessary to build a road traffic network extending in all directions. Kungu Ndungu, director of the Kenya Highway Authority, said that the Nairobi Expressway has greatly relieved road congestion, significantly reduced logistics and public commuting costs, and has been well received locally.

Nairobi Expressway toll booth

An important topic of the 36th summit meeting of the African Union (AU) is to accelerate the construction of the African Continental Free Trade Area. However, for a long time, the roads, bridges, ports, water supply, power supply and other infrastructure in some parts of Africa are still incomplete, which has become the main obstacle for African countries to strengthen economic and trade exchanges.

China has participated in the construction of more than 6,000 kilometers of railways, 6,000 kilometers of roads, nearly 20 ports, and more than 80 large-scale power facilities in Africa. At the end of January this year, the Lekki Deepwater Port in Nigeria, which was built by a Chinese company, held a port opening ceremony. The largest deep-water port in West Africa is expected to create an overall economic benefit of nearly US$360 billion and 170,000 jobs, opening up a new situation for Nigeria's economic development.

Dennis Mwaba, an engineering expert at the University of Zambia, said that China's help has further improved Africa's interconnection, cross-border and cross-regional infrastructure construction, greatly promoted Africa's trade and investment facilitation and economic integration, and brought industrialization to African countries. opportunity. Editor/He Yuting