Former Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has commended China’s unrelenting efforts to build a well-connected, technologically advanced transportation system, stressing its crucial role in propelling the country’s development.
Sharaf, as a former professor of transportation engineering who has published over 100 papers on the subject, shared his expert viewpoint on the Chinese approach to infrastructure and connectivity while speaking with China Media Group in Guangzhou City, south China’s Guangdong Province.
“Transportation and development are two sides of one coin. Imagine that you have an amount of gold, if you cannot connect with it, it’s nothing. So transportation makes added value. And of course with this vast area of China, you are connected and this is very important for people to trust. So that’s why the transportation system is very vital for economic development. For a country like China, is even more important because it’s huge. It has different ethnic groups. So to let everybody feel [a sense of] belonging, we have to connect,” said the former prime minister in an interview aired on Friday.
He emphasized that transportation is part of China’s broader push toward a more advanced society, which he described as key to the country’s successive achievements in recent years.
“You have leapfrog, jumps. That’s what happened in China. Nobody could imagine even 20 years ago or 10 years ago that level of China, unless the innovation and science and technology played a vital role. And always, it says science, technology and economy. This is what really moves the country. Innovation is a core element of Chinese modernization,” Sharaf said.
Transportation, technology fuel China’s development: former Egyptian PM
China and the United Kingdom have agreed to further expand economic and financial cooperation, as the two sides held the 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialog in Beijing on Saturday.
The dialog was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who serve as the lead persons of the dialog.
He said that China is willing to work with Britain to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, uphold the positioning of strategic partners, strengthen communication and dialog, further expand economic and financial cooperation, and provide more impetus for the development of stable and mutually beneficial China-Britain relations.
Reeves said that Britain is willing to strengthen practical cooperation with China in the fields of economy and finance, and develop a consistent, lasting and mutually respectful relationship between the two countries.
During the dialog, the two sides reached a series of mutually beneficial outcomes and consensus.
He and Reeves also attended the fourth China-UK Financial Services Summit.
China, UK vow to strengthen economic, financial cooperation
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