Ambassador of Namibia to The People's Republic of China, Elia George Kayamo. (Photo/ Overseas Network Fu Yongchao)
"Every time I return to China, not only do I bring back products such as Huawei mobile phones, but I hope to bring back china's experience." Recently, Namibian Ambassador to China Ilia George Kaiamo expressed his high recognition of China's development, China's system and China's road in an exclusive interview with the People's Daily Overseas Network.
40 years ago, Kaiamo began to read a large number of books to deepen his understanding of Chinese history, Chinese system, and China's reform and opening up. In the past three years since he became ambassador to China, Kaiamo has personally experienced how China has achieved great economic and social changes of "cars full of streets and cars". Kaiamo said he hoped that Africa could also learn from China's successful experience.
China is Namibia's eternal friend
Namibia, located in southwest Africa, is like a wedge between the Kalahari Desert and the South Atlantic Ocean, and the unique style of "half seawater, half desert" is famous all over the world. Kaiamo proudly said that Namibia not only has beautiful blue skies, stars and red deserts, but also a stable political environment, active economic development, smooth network facilities, and people who are very friendly to Chinese.
This young country, which was independent in 1990, has deep ties with China. "China is Namibia's friend and forever friend." Throughout the interview, Kaiamo repeatedly mentioned the strong feelings of Namibians towards China.
For Namibians, China is the hot land for Namibia's founding president, Nujoma, to study abroad, to be the friend who supported Namibia's independence struggle, and to provide training, resources, food and other assistance to Namibia's development. Keamo said emotionally that China established diplomatic relations with Namibia the day after its independence, and "we deeply feel China's sincerity and goodwill."
Namibian Ambassador to China Ilia George Kaiamo was interviewed by People's Daily Overseas Network. (Photo/ Overseas Network Fu Yongchao)
Ride the "Express" of China's Development
The traditional friendship between China and Namibia has become more and more mellow in the tempering of the years. China has not only achieved its own leapfrog development, but also sincerely welcomes all countries in the world, especially the vast number of developing countries, including Namibia, to take the "express train" of China's development.
Kaiamo was very pleased to say that China's huge consumer market has opened its arms to Namibian products, and Namibia has become the first African country to be allowed to export beef to China. Not long ago, Kaiyamo personally attended the opening ceremony of the first batch of Namibian beef exported to China held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. Speaking of the sales of Namibian beef in the Chinese market, Kaiya Mo was full of joy, "Chinese consumers like Namibian beef, and sales are very good. ”
Recently, the good news of Sino-Namibia cooperation has continued, and the completion of the new container terminal in Walvis Bay Port in Namibia undertaken by Chinese enterprises is also a great event. The construction of the Walvis Bay Port is an extremely important part of Namibia's national development plan to build a logistics hub for southern Africa. "The completion of the new container terminal has greatly enhanced the connectivity of West Africa and South Africa, as well as the connection between the landlocked countries of the surrounding Africa and the world." Since then, Chinese goods can be transported from Tanzania by rail to Namibia and then to other countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi, which will not only benefit Namibia's efficient cooperation with China, but also greatly promote the import and export development of West Africa and southern African countries.
Bringing China's experience back home
As ambassador to China, a country of special significance to Namibia, Kaia Mo is proud and deeply responsible. Over the past three years, Kaiamo has worked hard to understand Chinese society and people, trying to understand from a deeper level "why the Chinese system will succeed" and "how reform and opening up have promoted China's development".
Talking about the understanding of the secret of China's success, Kaiamo gushed: China has the most industrious people in the world, and the Chinese Communist Party has the right way of leadership. He greatly appreciated the CPC's leadership and work method of "coming from the masses and going to the masses.": "Mao Zedong once compared the masses of the people to 'water' and the Communist Party to 'fish', and it can be said that a close 'fish-water relationship' has really formed between the CPC and the masses of the people."
Kaiamo believes that it is precisely under the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China that China has crossed one ditch after another and won one victory after another. In the past, the Communist Party of China led the Red Army through a 25,000-mile long march and pioneered the great cause of reform and opening up; now the Communist Party of China is leading the Chinese people to the world, to the future, and to the "new long march" of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Kaiamo not only personally agrees with and appreciates China's path, but also hopes to bring his observations and experiences back to Namibia. Kaiamo said that the gift he brings back home every time is not only electronic products like Huawei mobile phones, but more importantly, books about China's development. How China has escaped poverty, how it has managed corruption, how it has established a good social order, and how the Chinese people have established patriotic convictions, these experiences of China are of great reference significance to Namibia. "My friends loved the books I brought back because they benefited a lot from them." Kayamo said.
At present, more and more Namibian students are coming to China to study education, economics, politics and other aspects. Kaiamo said that more Chinese friends are welcome to go to Namibia for sightseeing and tourism, and he also hopes that more and more Namibians can come to China to personally experience China's society and culture.
(Text/People's Daily Overseas Network Mao Li Wang Zhizhuan Translation/Zhao Yuan, School of International Relations, Beijing University of Foreign Chinese)
This article is produced by the "I am an ambassador in China" column of the Overseas Network of the People's Daily, and is especially grateful to the School of International Relations of the University of Foreign Chinese in Beijing.