Republic of Congo's minister praises China-funded agricultural center

BRAZZAVILLE -- The Republic of Congo's agriculture minister has praised an agriculture center fully funded by China as a true symbol of success of South-South cooperation.

The agricultural technologies demonstration center, officially inaugurated in September, "achieved three things which constitute the pillars of agricultural development: training, popularization and scientific research," Rigobert Maboundou said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The center covering an area of 59 hectares in Brazzaville will not only enable the sub-Saharan African country to produce quality maize, cassava and other produce, but also will help the Congolese obtain advanced agricultural skills, he said.

Maboundou, who has followed the progress of the center's construction, expressed satisfaction with the way Chinese experts were transferring skills and knowledge to the locals.

"When you get to the ground, you could not distinguish between the boss and the subordinate staff because everyone was working, and that impressed me a lot," the minister said.

He stressed that the cooperation with China had transformed the Republic of Congo in many areas.

"It's a cooperation with evidence, not just words," he said. "Behind words, agreements and conventions, there are results that everyone can see, through the kilometers of roads, through a number of dams, through the public buildings that have been constructed, through the training and technologies as well as skills transferred to our people."

The cooperation with China is the best among all types of bilateral cooperation that the Republic of Congo has had since its independence, Maboundou said.

"There's a lot of sincerity in the cooperation, but more importantly, there's a lot of efficacy. And that's why China and the Chinese are very popular among the public of the Republic of Congo," he added.

As for China's role in the development of Africa, the minister said that China had become a development model for the continent, not only in agriculture, but also in many other sectors, such as infrastructure.

He expressed his confidence that no defamation attempts would derail relations between Brazzaville and Beijing and cooperation between China and Africa at large.