China has signed an agreement today to upgrade the TAZARA railway, which will assist landlocked Zambia, the second-largest copper producer in Africa, in exporting the metal through Tanzania.
The ceremony, which marked the beginning of the most significant enhancement of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority since Mao Zedong’s support for its construction in the 1970s, was overseen by the heads of state from the three countries at the Forum on China Africa-Cooperation (FOCAC).
This railway connects Zambia’s mining regions to Tanzania’s principal port, Dar es Salaam, located on the eastern coast of Africa. It is poised to play an important role in transporting copper to China, the world’s largest consumer of the metal used in products ranging from air conditioners to electric vehicles.
