LUSAKA, Nov. 20 — On November 20 local time, Chinese Premier Li Qiang jointly attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tazara Railway revitalization project in Lusaka with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Mpango.
Li Qiang stated that in September last year, President Xi Jinping, together with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Beijing, witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Tazara Railway Revitalization Project. Over the past year and more, relevant departments and enterprises from China, Tanzania, and Zambia have worked together with one heart and taken active actions, promoting significant progress in the project and ushering in its official commencement. The Tazara Railway is like a bond that tightly connects the hearts of the Chinese, Tanzanian, and Zambian people. The spirit of the Tazara Railway is a valuable asset forged with painstaking effort and sweat, which we must cherish and protect together. China-Africa cooperation has now embarked on a new journey to pursue the dream of modernization. The Tazara Railway is a landmark project of China-Africa cooperation. China is willing to work together with Zambia and Tanzania to make this railway,满载着希望, radiate new brilliance in the new era and inject more momentum into the development of Tanzania and Zambia, and even the entire African continent.
Li Qiang pointed out that the Chinese government will work with the governments of Tanzania and Zambia to provide necessary support and guarantees for the railway’s revitalization. He expressed hope that the three parties—China, Tanzania, and Zambia—will adhere to high quality and high standards in advancing the construction, making the project a high-quality, efficient, safe, and reliable exemplary project, setting a benchmark for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. China is willing to assist Zambia and Tanzania in promoting the construction of the Tazara Railway prosperity belt, jointly creating new economic growth hubs, while also cooperating to implement more “small yet beautiful” projects along the route in areas such as healthcare and poverty reduction for farmers, to better promote the improvement of people’s livelihoods. China is also willing to take the railway revitalization as an opportunity to promote the “hard connectivity” of infrastructure such as railways, highways, and ports with Zambia and Tanzania, strengthen the “soft connectivity” in areas such as customs, commodity inspection, and taxation, continuously enhance the level of trade and investment facilitation, promote the integration and connection of markets and industries between China, Tanzania, Zambia, and between China and Africa, and gather greater synergy for development. Looking ahead, China-Africa cooperation has broad prospects. China is willing to work together with Zambia, Tanzania, and other African countries to further promote the spirit of the Tazara Railway, implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and continuously deepen and solidify the building of an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
Hichilema and Mpango stated that the Tazara Railway is a monument of friendship built by the older generation of leaders of the three countries and a symbol of the era of independence, self-reliance, unity, and mutual assistance among the three peoples. Revitalizing the Tazara Railway symbolizes the shared destiny and joint creation of the future by the three countries and will become a vivid practice of the Chinese and African people inheriting friendship and joining hands for revitalization. Zambia and Tanzania are willing to fully cooperate with China, actively implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, build the railway revitalization project into a high-quality project for jointly advancing modernization, promote regional connectivity, drive industrial upgrading, green transformation, and economic development in countries along the route, serve the well-being of the people, and compose a new chapter in building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
During the event, Li Qiang held friendly exchanges with Tanzanian Vice President Philip Mpango.
The governments of China, Tanzania, and Zambia jointly issued the Joint Statement on Jointly Building the Tazara Railway Prosperity Belt.
People’s Daily (Page 03, November 21, 2025)
