Nurturing a bright future for China-Africa cooperation

BEIJING -- "The future of China-Africa relations lies in our young people," said President Xi Jinping while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

The development of young people has been high on the agenda of China-Africa cooperation. Many of the initiatives Xi outlined at FOCAC summits were designed to assist them in exploring job opportunities and pursuing better personal development.

At the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, he proposed the establishment of regional vocational education centers and capacity-building schools for Africa. Three years later, at the Beijing Summit, he introduced the idea of setting up Luban Workshops on the continent to provide vocational training for more youngsters.

Over the years, these measures have benefited many young African people. Among them is Jamlick Mwangi Kariuki, a 26-year-old Kenyan student pursuing a master's degree in a Beijing-based university.

Kariuki's connection with China started in 2017, when the Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) opened to traffic. The project not only cuts rail travel time between the two cities by half, but also has created about 50,000 jobs for locals, resulting in the training of more than 2,800 high-caliber railway professionals for the country.

Months before the modern railway's opening, Kariuki was enrolled in a China-funded program aimed at boosting the ranks of Kenyan talent for railway management, and moved to Beijing for undergraduate study in civil engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University.

After graduating in 2021, Kariuki went back home to work for the Kenya Railways Corporation as an assistant engineer, contributing to the operation of the SGR. Many of his fellow students in the same program are working for the Kenyan corporation. In his quest for more advanced knowledge, Kariuki returned to China in 2023 to further his studies at the same university in order to become a railway expert.

Feeling grateful for the opportunities they received, representatives of Kenyan students and alumni at the university, including Kariuki, wrote a letter to Xi at the end of 2023, expressing their great pleasure in coming to China to learn more about railway operation and management.

The year 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was put forward by Xi.

In his reply letter in January this year, Xi said the BRI has turned the ideals of development and revitalization of China and Kenya into reality, and closely linked the well-being of the two peoples, calling the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR a flagship project and a successful example of China-Kenya Belt and Road cooperation.

"I am glad to see that you have bonded with China through this road to happiness. You have witnessed and benefited from China-Kenya and China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and you have helped build and spread the friendly cooperation between China and Kenya and between China and Africa," Xi said in the letter.

He went on to add that the blueprints of the BRI and the China-Kenya comprehensive strategic partnership demand the involvement of more ambitious and capable young individuals like them to ensure successful realization.

Inspired by Xi's words, Kariuki said he will continue working hard to contribute to the two countries' cooperation and common development.

Xi values both the inheritance of traditional China-Africa friendship and the cultural exchanges between Chinese and African youth. During his visit to South Africa in March 2013, he witnessed the signing of an agreement between China and South Africa on jointly establishing the Confucius Institute at Durban University of Technology. In ten years since its establishment, the institute trained about 10,000 students.

In 2023, 50 faculty members and students from the institute in Durban wrote a joint letter to Xi, sharing their experiences and thanking Xi and the Chinese government for providing more opportunities for African youth to pursue their dreams.

In his reply letter, Xi encouraged them to visit China more often, and develop a deeper understanding of China while having a good command of the Chinese language to contribute to promoting China-Africa friendship and cooperation.

When addressing the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit, Xi expressed his confidence that the baton of China-Africa friendship would be passed from one generation to the next and that China and Africa, working together, would build an even more vibrant community with a shared future.