Africa-Press – Gambia. CGTN’s Serena Dong spoke to the Somali ambassador to China and she started by asking him about the state of China-Somalia relations.
AWALE ALI KULLANE Somali Ambassador to China “Yes, bilateral relation is subjected to involvement and I can say that Somalis relations with China has survived challenges, also has been historic, even before 62 years, admiral Zheng has visited to Somali, has been one of the most renowned, establishing the maritime silk road, has also give us history to rely on it. History gives us some foundation, and gives us opportunity to build on.
So I think we share a great deal of of history that marks us all. Somali’s road infrastructure China built long before its opening up invested in Somalia and I think there is the people to people relations with China and Somalia. It has always been strong.
Currently after Somali coming back from conflict and civil war and it’s amazing, even during our darkest decade, Somalia embassy to China has been open in Beijing. So I think this signifies how strong the relation is between Somali and China.”
DONG XUE CGTN Reporter “The eighth ministerial meeting of China-Africa cooperation held last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that China will work closely with African countries to jointly implement what’s known as the ‘nine projects’, which include health, digital innovation, peace and security. What can Somalia offer to participate in China-Africa cooperation and any expectations for future cooperation?”
AWALE ALI KULLANE Somali Ambassador to China “Somali can cooperate with China, we welcome the program from FOCAC and President Xi’s program. I think we can cooperate on many sectors, as I mentioned, Somalia has the longest coast, that means it’s maritime opportunity, officials can create jobs, fight poverty, and so on and improve agriculture. Agricultural land in Somalia is found for investment opportunities that is part of the nine programs, equally digitization. Somalia was one of the first countries who’s used money transfer through phone transfer in horn of Africa decades ago and we can improve work on that. So the real question is what can Somalia not offer in working on all the sectors that were offered in Nine Programs and we are working hard to to really develop that within the next three years and achieve these goals as much as we can with China and improve the China Africa agreement programs as written down. So we’re willing to take part in it.”
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