China-Africa cooperation resilient under pandemic: official

BEIJING - China-Africa cooperation has demonstrated its resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic as many joint projects continued to proceed, a Chinese official said Friday.

More than 1,100 China-Africa joint programs have continued, and nearly 100,000 Chinese technicians and workers have remained at their posts, said Wu Peng, head of the department of African affairs of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wu made the remarks at a press conference on the release of a white paper, titled "China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals".

Since 2000, with the inception of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Chinese companies have utilized various funds to help African countries with more infrastructure projects. These include building and upgrading more than 10,000 km of railways and nearly 100,000 km of highways, according to the white paper.

Wu said a number of joint infrastructure projects have also managed to continue their operation during the pandemic, including the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway.

In fact, more people took the two railways because road transport was hampered by the pandemic, Wu added.