借鉴经验 聚焦发展

“这是我第二次访问河南，与五年前相比，河南的飞速发展令我震惊。”从河南访问归来的卢旺达使馆经济参赞卢文杰先生兴奋地向本刊记者谈起他的感受。

“这是我第一次到兰考实地考察，当地人民艰苦奋斗，摆脱贫困的精神，值得非洲学习。因为非洲面临同样的困难，我们应该更多地关注发展，关注非洲的需要以及政府应该为人民做些什么”。

2018年11月20-25日，中非合作论坛中方后续行动委员会组织非洲国家驻华使节赴河南省考察。考察结束后，卢旺达驻华使馆经济参赞卢文杰在北京接受本刊专访，讲述他对中国精神的理解，同时，解读两国经贸投资合作机遇。

《中国投资》： 2018年11月您与一些非洲使节赴河南实地考察，这是您第一次去河南省访问吗？

卢文杰：这是我第二次访问河南。五年前我曾经去过河南实地考察。但此次河南之行，我看到，在习近平主席和中国政府的领导下，中国发生了巨大变化。中国政府正努力为人民创造更美好的未来，同时中国人民也在为此而努力奋斗。

《中国投资》：与上次访问相比，此次河南之行您感受到哪些变化？印象最深的是什么？

卢文杰：这次河南之行让我充分感受到河南省经济的巨大发展，其国民生产总值已位居全国前五名，仅排在广东、江苏、山东和浙江之后。在参观访问过程中，我亲眼目睹河南的许多变化，给我留下了深刻的印象。
给我留下印象最深的是，作为地处交通枢纽位置的河南省，目前正在建造连通济南、太原、杭州和重庆的高速铁路。它的公路网络也很发达，而河南的空中航线则可以直接从郑州飞抵欧洲国家，包括卢森堡。河南还兴建了大型会展交易中心和电子商务会展交易中心，在这些地方你可以看到来自世界各地的产品，人们则可以很方便地进行销售和采购。此外，我还了解到安阳不仅是甲骨文的发源地，并且是中国小麦的重要产地。
同时，在河南我体会到中国文化的历史悠久与博大精深。如果说中华民族拥有五千年的历史，那么河南的历史至少长达三千年。河南地处黄河中下游，土地得到黄河的滋养。洛阳、安阳、开封和郑州在历史上都曾是中国的首都，造纸、印刷、火药和指南针这四大发明也都诞生于此。

河南也是世界六大文化遗产的故乡，包括龙门石窟、殷墟和举世闻名的少林寺，它们对推广中国文化起到了重要作用。我很庆幸自己能参观所有这些地方。

《中国投资》：除了您刚才所提及的，龙门石窟和少林寺这些文化遗产，河南还有一些奇迹工程，比如红旗渠。红旗渠带给您的感受是什么？

卢文杰：我认为，红旗渠展现了中国人民对国家的热爱和勇于奉献的精神。这种爱国和奉献精神不仅能够鼓舞中国人民，对卢旺达人民也同样具有激励作用。

当时修建红旗渠的过程实在太艰苦了。上世纪六十年代，为了改善恶劣的生存环境，林州县的人民自力更生，凭借坚忍不拔的毅力、团结协作和无私的奉献的精神，用自己的双手建成了“红旗渠”。他们这种不畏艰难的拼搏精神深深触动了我。我在那里听到了普通民众当时常说的话，“干部能流汗，我们就不怕流血；干部搬石头，我们就有决心搬山头。”这句话太令人感到震撼了。

因此，我认为非洲如果也想提高政府办事效率和人民的生活质量，就应当学习中国人民的这种爱国和奉献精神。

2018年9月，在中非合作高峰论坛上，非洲国家的领导人也都纷纷表示要齐心协力，构建人类命运共同体。

《中国投资》：说到扶贫，您这次参观了河南省兰考县，它在历史上一直是一个非常贫困的地区，几百年来经常遭遇洪水和沙尘暴的侵袭。但是当地政府经过多年的努力，使当地人民终于摆脱了贫困。您对兰考的扶贫模式如何评价？

卢文杰：这次实地考察让我们深入了解了中国政府是怎样帮助人民战胜贫困的，这对我们来说非常重要，因为非洲国家也面临着贫困问题，所以我们必须聚焦发展。我们无需在意别人对我们的看法或评价，但一定要关注自身的发展方向和我们应当为人民做些什么。非洲的领导人应当为国家的发展做出不懈努力。这就需要与中国进行更多的对话，共同探讨如何更好地落实在2018年9月举行的中非合作论坛峰会上通过的八大行动计划。中国与非洲关系友好，又都面临着类似的发展任务，中国与非洲完全可以携手合作，共同实现脱贫目标。

《中国投资》：根据您的观察，应当怎样向其他发展中国家推广兰考县的扶贫经验？

卢文杰：或许兰考县政府可以前往那些发展中国家，向那里的人民传授摆脱贫困的经验。可以在当地成立工作坊或者示范中心。举例来讲，在卢旺达的蘑菇种植示范中心，人们已经开始种植菌草。这类示范中心对帮助当地人民脱贫能够发挥重要作用，因此我希望兰考也可以在卢旺达尝试成立这样的中心，展示和传授各种农产品的种植技术。

在兰考考察时，还看到他们为当地农民建造的安置房，房间里所有的生活设施一应俱全，这也让人印象深刻。因为他们以前居住的房屋里或缺水或缺电，而现在所有的生活设施都齐备了。我们也有必要为卢旺达人民做这样的规划。

这些安置房不仅改善当地人民的生活条件，而且还节省空间和土地。人们既有了良好的居住环境，也可以更好地从事农业生产。

我们还参观了农民搭建的温室，它对于发展现代农业非常有利。这对非洲也很有借鉴意义，因为非洲大部分地区也非常缺水，干旱的现象很严重，温室种植可以提升非洲农业生产效率。

《中国投资》：焦裕禄曾经是兰考县的党委书记，他在那里工作期间，热爱人民、工作勤勉、求真务实，这些后来被称为焦裕禄精神。您怎样理解他的这种领导作风？

卢文杰：兰考人民一直都非常爱戴他，就像许多人始终都非常热爱毛泽东一样。这是因为他们为中国人民做出了重大贡献，改变了他们的生活，所以人民当然会永远纪念他们。

对于兰考人民来说，对焦裕禄为他们所做的一切充满感激，而且他的继任者们也愿意以他为榜样，继续全心全意为人民服务。我认为我们应当永远缅怀那些为人民幸福生活奉献一生的人。

《中国投资》：虽然河南只是一个省，而卢旺达是一个国家，但您觉得它们之间有什么共同之处吗？河南的发展对卢旺达有什么借鉴意见？

卢文杰：是的，河南与卢旺达有相似之处。你知道，卢旺达是一个以农业为主的国家，而河南省在农业发展方面有许多先进经验，因此双方在提高产品附加值方面具有广泛合作的潜力。如果我们能够协同努力，一定可以促进两地人民的共同发展，实现互利共赢。

目前，河南正在推进城市化，使其城乡变得更加美丽，并且帮助人们实现他们的梦想。事实上，卢旺达的情况也是如此。1994年在对图西族实行种族灭绝后，国家陷入了近乎瘫痪的状态。但是在卡加梅总统和卢旺达爱国阵线的领导下，我们已经实现了国家振兴。现在卢旺达在社会经济发展、安全、零腐败和营商环境等方面都已成为非洲国家中的典范。

河南是中国率先建立跨境电子商务的省份，而卢旺达也在最近与阿里巴巴签署了构建电子贸易平台的协议，这样卢旺达的商品就可以通过天猫或中国其他的电子商务平台销售到中国。

河南省的工业也为两国的发展和友谊做出了贡献，而且未来仍具有很大的合作潜力，比如，智能手机装配、中信集团旗下在国际市场久负盛名的中信重工机械股份有限公司的机械制造、宇通集团生产的新能源汽车、农业示范中心以及像河南国际合作集团这样的经营房地产和工程承包的公司等。

《中国投资》：长期以来，河南省一直向非洲国家派遣医疗队，您对中国给予非洲的医疗援助有怎样的评价？

卢文杰：卢旺达一直与中国在医疗保健和医疗援助领域进行合作，中国也一直在派遣医生到我们国家的医院提供直接帮助。2018年7月中国国家主席习近平在访问卢旺达时与卢旺达总统签署了扩建马萨卡医院的协议。这家医院将完全按照国际标准建造和配备设施，这对卢旺达来说是一件非常令人瞩目的事。最近卢旺达有关代表团访问了中国，进一步落实和确定协议的内容。我相信扩建工程很快就可以动工了。（编辑：裴安迪）

⬆非洲使节在兰考县展览馆前合影

英文版

Learning from experience focusing on development

——Interview with Virgile RWANYAGATARE Economic Counselor of Rwanda Embassy in China

By Zhang Mei  China Investment

"This is my second visit to Henan, and comparing with the first visit of five years ago, I am really shocked by its rapid development.” This is what Mr. Virgile RWANYAGATARE, the Economic counselor  of the Embassy of Rwanda, told our journalist. He is apparently very excited about the trip.

Then he further added, “This is my first field trip to Lankao, where local people’s spirit of struggling hard to get rid of poverty is worth learning in Africa, because we are facing the same challenge. We really should pay close attention to Africa’s development, the needs of African people, as well as what the governments can do for their people.”

From Nov.20 to 25, 2018, China Follow-up Committee of China-Africa Cooperation Forum organized some African envoys to visit Henan Province. After this visit,  Mr. Virgile RWANYAGATARE, the Economic counselor of the Embassy of Rwanda, accepted the exclusive interview of China Investment in Beijing. During the interview, he talked about his understanding of Chinese Spirit; while at the same time he also explored the opportunities for economic, trade and investment cooperation between China and Rwanda.

China Investment: Counselor Virgile, we know that you and other African delegates went on a field trip in Henan in 2018 November, is this your first time visiting Henan province?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: Actually no, I have visited Henan Province five years ago, and since then I have really realized that a lot of changes have been going on under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and Central Committee of CPC. You can see that China is bringing a very bright future for its people, and you can the hard work of Chinese people.

China Investment: Can you give us more details about the trip, such as how different was it in comparison to last time you visited?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: I have realized during this trip that today Henan’s economy is growing tremendously and now ranks top five provinces among China, after Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang. So this time, I have really seen a lot of changes, a lot of improvement of the province. And I was very much impressed.

This time you can see that Henan is a very important bridge in transportation hub for China.

Also Henan is building a very high speed railway, which are connecting cities like Jinan, Taiyuan, Hangzhou, and Chongqing. It also has very extensive road way system, the air silk road, which’s connecting Zhengzhou to European countries, including Luxembourg. Also Henan has built this big exhibition trading center, E-Commerce Exhibition Trading Center, where you can find products from across the world, so people can buy and sell different products and goods to the rest of the world. So I was really impressed of that. And also, I have realized that city of An Yang is the home of Oracle scripting and it is an important wheat producer in agriculture in China.

Henan has long history. Among the five thousand years of China, three thousand belongs to Henan. It’s a great honor and opportunity to experience where the cultural ancestor of China commenced the Chinese civilization and the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road.

Henan has rich history, it’s a land nourished by yellow river, it boasts the four of ancient Chinese capitals namely Luoyang, Anyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and all the invention of ancient China paper making, printing, gunpowder as well as the compass.

Henan is also a home to six world heritage cultural sites including the Longman Grottoes, Yinxu, well known Shaolin Kungfu which actually plays a big role in promoting Chinese culture. So I was happy to see all of these with my own eyes, and I think Henan is developing really fast, you can tell the huge different from my previous trip five years ago.

China Investment:  In addition to the cultural heritage of Longmen Grottoes and Shaolin Temple that you just mentioned, there are some artificial miracles in Henan, such as the Red Flag Canal. How do you feel about them?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: Myself are very impressed of the Hongqi Canal, or what they call it the Red flag Canal. Because it shows how Chinese people are dedicated and love their country. It really inspires not only China, but also  our country. You could see that how people work hard, whether they are moving rocks  to transform the canal. In 1960s, in order to improve their harsh living environment, the people in Linzhou confronted with daunting conditions and decided to build the “Red Flag Canal” through hard work, which featured their self-reliance, perseverance, joint cooperation and selfless devotion. What impressed me the most was the spirit of people behind this activity. There is something I heard which is very very inspiring for me, where the people saying that, “If their leader could sweat they could bleed; If their leader could lift the rock, they could move a mountain.”

So I think African should learn from this experience while being more patriotic and dedicated to their own countries in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness.

Also, in September 2018 during the Forum on China Africa Cooperation Summit, the leaders decided to build together a stronger community with a shared future.

⬆African Envoy Visiting Shaolin Temple

China Investment: Talking about poverty alleviation. You have also visited Lankao County in Henan, a place where had been poor throughout history and suffered from frequent floods and sandstorms for centuries. But now with booming mushroom industry and homestay tourism, local people have jobs and are awarded special loans for poverty alleviation from the government. So how do you think of Lankao’s model on poverty alleviaiton?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: This field trip showed how China has managed to overcome poverty and it is really important for us to learn from this experience since African countries are facing the same situation and should focus more on development, we shouldn’t care about what people think or say about us, we should focus on what we want and what we should do for the people.

Since many countries are still facing poverty in many areas in Africa, so I think our leaders should work tirelessly for their people for their countries future development. We need to have more dialogue with China and discuss how to live out the vision so that we can better implement the eight initiatives agreed on during FOCAC Summit in September 2018 for cooperative development. And I believe that with the affinity and similar development task between China and Africa, we could work hand in hand with China, to be able to achieve our goal to alleviate people from poverty.

China Investment:  In your observation, what experiences could Lankao County’s poverty alleviation model provide for other developing countries?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: Maybe they can go to the developing countries to show them that how they have managed the way to overcome these tough times. Maybe set up workshop, demonstration center in developing countries to show them. For example, the mushroom agriculture demonstration center in our country are now started producing JunCao. I think this kind of demonstration center can help people to develop in such a way. So I hope that Lankao can also do the same in our country to try to develop some center to demonstrate, especially some agriculture products.

We have also seen how Lankao were able to construct resettlement houses for families, like how a family can live in one house with all needed facilities, that was impressive, because it shows how before people used to live without maybe water, electricity, but now people have access to all of these facilities. So we also need to do that for our people in our countries.

Those resettlement houses are really good, and they also kind of save the space, the land, people can have a land for where to live, also a land where they can do other activities or agriculture.

We also saw the greenhouses, which is also good for people to do model agriculture. That’s also good for us, because you can see many places in Africa, they don’t have water, it’s too much drought, so we can learn how Chinese are doing their job.

China Investment: Jiao Yulu was a county party secretary in Lankao, when he was working in the county, he showed the spirit of loving the people, hard work, and scientific truth-seeking. It is called the spirit of Jiao Yulu. How do you understand his leadership spirit?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: You can always tell that people like him, it’s like when you say someone like Mao Zedong, these are the people who have done a lot for the people of China, and people will always honor what they have provided to them, and how they have improve their lives.

So for Lankao County’s people, they are very grateful towards what Jiao has provided to them, maybe they want to follow his step to do the same. So I think it’s a great thing to always recognize these people who have dedicated their lives to the people.

China Investment: Do you think that there is something in common between Henan and Rwanda, even though Henan is a province but Rwanda is a country? Does its development have any reference significance for your country?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: Yes there is similarity. You know Rwanda is an agricultural base country and Henan has a lot of advantages in terms of agriculture development therefore there is a potential to have more extensive cooperation in increasing added value of our products, and with concerted effort, we can realize mutual benefit for the common development of our people.

Henan is also advancing urbanization to make cities and villages beautiful and help people achieve their dreams, indeed Rwanda is doing the same after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, when the country was nearly declared a failed State. However, due to the leadership of President Paul Kagame and Rwanda patriotic Front, we have been able to recover, and Rwanda has become a model for Africa in terms of social economy development, security, zero-corruption, best place to do business to name a few.

Henan was the first to establish the cross border e-commerce, recently Rwanda has signed agreement with Alibaba for electronic world trade platform in order to promote Rwandan products on T-mall.com and other Chines digital platforms.

Henan industries also have contributed to the effort and friendship between Rwanda and China and have high potential, for example the smart phone assembling, the CITIC company with heavy Industries which  is making its name in International market, the new energy buses manufactured by Yutong, agricultural demonstration farms as well as companies such as  Henan Guoji which have huge potential in real state and property development.

China Investment: Henan Province has a history of sending medical team to African countries, how do you assess China’s health aid assistance to Africa?

Virgile RWANYAGATARE: We have been cooperate with China in healthcare and medical aid area, China has been sending doctors to our country and in many of our hospitals to help. During Chinese President Xi’s visit to Rwanda in July 2018, he has signed an agreement with my president to extend our hospital in Masaka District, where they are going to make it an international standard hospital, so this is going to be a very huge achievement for my country. This is going to be high level hospital and recently, we have delegations from Rwanda to visit China, to implement and conclude this agreement, so I’m sure that very soon the work will start.

⬆Virgile RWANYAGATARE visiting the YTO Group Cooperation