00:06This is a memorial ceremony held in honor of 51 Chinese experts who died during the construction
00:12of the rail, hailed as the road of friendship and the road of freedom. They were laid to rest in
00:17what's called the Chinese Expert Cemetery near Dar es Salaam. Nearly half a century later,
00:23representatives from the Chinese embassy in Tanzania and government officials from Tanzania
00:28and Zambia gathered to honor them. China's ambassador to Tanzania remembered what the
00:34country's first president said about the project. Julius Nyerira spoke highly of the railway.
00:42In the past, quote, in the past, construction of railways by foreigners in Africa was for the
00:51purpose of plundering African's wealth. The Chinese did it for a totally different purpose.
01:01They built it to help us. Others opened up on the project's immense scale and difficulty.
01:08Fifty years ago, the construction of Tozara was one of the most ambitious engineering projects
01:14ever undertaken on the African continent. Through mountains, valleys, rivers, and unforgiving terrain,
01:23tens of thousands of Tanzanians, Zambian, and Chinese workers labored side by side to build a railway
01:29that many believed could never be built. The legacy lives on in every terrain that travels this railway line.
01:38Built with huge interest-free loans from China, the railway spans over 1,860 kilometers. It took over
01:4650,000 Chinese workers to build it while facing numerous hazards. Some of them succumbed to tropical diseases,
01:53floods, venomous snakes, and wild animals, as well as the region's harsh geological conditions.
01:59Over time, Tozara's infrastructure aged, limiting its freight capacity. This prompted the governments of China,
02:06Tanzania, and Zambia to jointly launch a major modernization project last November. It aims to
02:12improve both hard connectivity through infrastructure upgrades and soft connectivity by enhancing customs
02:18and cross-border systems. The project is expected to increase transportation of people and goods,
02:24improve local livelihoods along the railway corridor, and create about 10,000 jobs.
02:32The Tazara revitalization project is a flagship project of high-quality belt-and-board cooperation
02:39between China and Africa. Economic development will be promoted along the railway corridor,
02:46with the goal of building what is known as a prosperity economic belt.
02:52The economic belt will include agricultural and industrial development, boosting industrialization,
02:59and sustainable economic growth throughout the region.
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