China proposes three-area focused plan for Africa as part of Belt and Road Initiative

China has added three new areas for investment to its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) focusing on the African continent where it has spent billions of dollars in infrastructure.
The new areas are namely industrialization, increase in agriculture investment and talent development.

President Xi Jinping launched the three-pronged plan during a China-Africa leaders’ roundtable meeting held at the tail-end of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg with at least eight African presidents and other officials from the continent attending, “Zawya” reports.

“China will channel more resources of assistance, investment and financing toward programs for industrialization,” Xi said.

The Chinese top leader indicated that Beijing will encourage Chinese companies to increase agricultural investment in Africa to help the continent modernize the sector and improve food production. Xi also posited that China would provide food assistance to some countries in need.

As for talent development, the Asian giant would train thousands of technical personnel and invite similar numbers of African government officials to workshops in China to learn new skills.

China has pumped billions of dollars into Africa through its BRI initiative. The investments went into road building, railways and ports across Africa. China had helped build more than 6,000 km of railway, over 6,000 km of highway, and 80-plus large-scale power facilities on the continent, and the focus would now be on modernizing other sectors in Africa, Xi reportedly said at the meeting.