A shared history

China wants to strengthen ties with Africa, writes its vice president Zhao Yueqin.

#Focac: As a developing country like most African countries, China shares similar experience of development with Africa and features strong complementarity with Africa.

Therefore the China-Africa relationship is incomparably crucial for global political and economic development as well as cultural exchange.

As long-standing and well-established as it is, China-African friendship is full of vitality and thus has great potential of development. In the 1950s’ and 1960s’, the first generation of Chinese leadership, such as Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, collaborated with their African counterparts to open a new era of China-African relationship.

Ever since then, Chinese and African people have worked hand in hand to fight against colonialism and imperialism and strive for national independence and economic revitalisation, leading to close and sincere friendship.

In recent years, China and Africa continuously forge ahead its political trust and witness frequent high-level contact between Chinese and African leadership?making remarkable progress in friendly cooperation and thus becoming an outstanding model for South-South cooperation.

China-African relationship is ushered into the fast track of all-around development with joint efforts. China has been the largest trade partner for Africa for many years successively. In 2015, China-African trade is expected to approach $300 billion.

In the first half of 2015, China’s direct investment in Africa registered as high as $1.19 billion. In addition, China attaches particul ar attention to China-African relationship in recent years. During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Tanzania in 2013, he described this relationship with four phrases: sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith.

Premier Li Keqiang proposed to upgrade China-African industrial cooperation in a thorough way and promote the construction of the networks for African high-speed railway, expressway and regional aviation as well as the industrialization of infrastructure, when he visited the headquarters of the Africa Union in 2014.

This is bound to be a new milestone for China-Africa friendship and forge ahead China-Africa cooperation.

This is significant for Chinese enterprises operating in Africa. The strengthening of China and African economic and trade ties is conducive to Chinese enterprises’ going abroad and accumulating the experience of participating in globalisation.

As one of the pioneers in Africa, StarTimes’ achievements in recent years are closely tied up with Africa’s development. Founded in 1988, StarTimes entered Africa’s radio and digital TV market in 2002 and then officially started business in 2007 by establishing StarTimes Media (Rwanda) Co., Ltd.

Currently it has registered companies and obtained license and frequency points in 28 countries including Rwanda, Nigeria, Guinea, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and operated in 16 countries with over 200 brand halls, 3 000 plus convenient stores, over 5 000 distributors and 3 200 local employers, indirectly creating over 100 000 jobs.

By combining DTT and DTH networks, it covers over 700 million African people, and is the fastest-growing and most influential DDT operator. We have strived to achieve our vision of “enabling every African household to have access to, afford and enjoy the beauty of Digital TV”.

In 2015, our subscribers approached six million and market share exceeds 30%. Besides the economic benefits, StarTimes also wins many awards in Africa.

In Nigeria, it is rated as the most popular pay-TV operator for three years in a row. In Uganda, it was awarded the prize of “Most Popular Investor” and “Best Digital TV Operator” by the government.

In Tanzania, the government awarded StarTimes a Certificate of Appreciation for its notable efforts of helping Tanzania to be the first African country to complete digital migration.

On October 25, StarTimes was awarded the Gold Star by the World Quality Commitment based in Paris. It is fair to say that StarTimes could not have made these achievements without the progress of Africa’s radio and TV market. Far beyond entering Africa, StarTimes has integrated and acquired deep roots in Africa.

Both China and African countries are faced with the task of marching towards modernisation. Africa has passed its 2063 long-term planning which embodies their aspiration for development, prosperity and well-being and depicts its development roadmap for Africa full of vigor and dynamism. This planning requires perseverant efforts of African people and will surely lead Africa to the fast track of development. Likewise, China will deepen its reforms in an all-around manner and strive to make its dream of revitalisation come true.

Africa and China have their requirement, advantage and opportunity perfectly complemented in terms of industrial tie-in and industrial capacity cooperation.

It is expected that China and Africa will promote more balanced, stable and prosperous world economy through win-win cooperation and mutual development and benefit both Chinese and African people and world people.

Taking advantage of the remarkable momentum of mutual political trust, mutual economic benefit and cultural exchange between China and Africa, StarTimes plans to expand its digital TV service to over 40 African countries with over 30 million subscribers.

We will continuously strive to close the ties between China-African exchange and cultural communication, forge ahead the comprehensive upgrading of China-African friendly cooperation and make humble contribution to traditional China-Africa friendship.

Taking advantage of the remarkable momentum of mutual political trust, mutual economic benefit and cultural exchange between China and Africa, StarTimes plans to expand its digital TV service to over 40 African countries with over 30 million subscribers.

We will continuously strive to close the ties between China-African exchange and cultural communication, forge ahead the comprehensive upgrading of China-African friendly cooperation and make humble contribution to traditional China-Africa friendship.

Zhao Yueqin is Vice President.

This article first appeared as an Independent Media supplement.