From 12th - 13th October, the Sino-African Infrastructure Development Symposium was jointly held by the Chinese Embassy in Zambia and the Policy Monitoring and Research Center (PMRC), a main think tank in Zambia. H.E. Mr. Yang Youming, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia, Hon. Ronald Chitotela, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development, and Guest of Honor, Hon. Margaret Mwanakatwe, Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Ms. Bernadette Deka, Executive Director of PMRC, representatives from the business and academic circles, and representatives from Chinese enterprises in Zambia, more than 150 people attended the Symposium.
Ambassador Yang remarked that infrastructure is the foundation of a country's modernization drive and the only law for national development of any country in the world. China's development experience has fully proved that infrastructure development is the crucial way to promote economic growth, create jobs and eliminate poverty. China's development over the past years testifies that the development of infrastructure should first abide by the principle of sustainable development to ensure that an infrastructure project achieves sufficient profit to sustain its own redevelopment. Secondly, infrastructure development should observe the principle of diversification of financing and management to keep exploring new models of financing and management in an open-minded way. Thirdly, infrastructure development should fulfil the principle of aligning infrastructure projects with economic development zones to drive the development of relevant regions.
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