Burkina Faso: What the government of H.E. Kyelem de Tambela concretely expects from China

The Prime Minister, Mr. Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela, granted an audience to the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Burkina Faso, Lu Shan at the end of the week. He took the opportunity of this meeting to plead for a greater presence of the “Middle Kingdom” in several areas of cooperation, including the fight against terrorism.

The new Burkinabe authorities are in the process of diversifying partnerships in terms of cooperation.

It is in this context that the Prime Minister, Mr. Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela, granted an audience to the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Burkina Faso, Lu Shan, on Friday, December 2, 2022.

During this meeting, the Head of Government outlined to his host, the areas of cooperation where he wants China to intervene.

“We want to develop by our own means, but we are limited technically and financially,” the Head of Government said.

The first area, which he described as a “serious problem”, is the fight against terrorism.

According to him, China’s participation in the military field could result in the supply of arms to support the Burkinabe army.

Among the areas of cooperation where the Prime Minister wished to see an intensification of Sino-Burkinabé relations, we can also mention higher education.

“China is the country that produces the most engineers in the world. We would like Chinese engineering schools to be able to receive our students,” he said.

In the agricultural sector, he hoped that China would build factories to meet the challenges of preserving and processing our products, including meat, milk, tomatoes, etc. “We produce a lot of gold,” he said.

“We produce a lot of gold, but our gold is sold in its raw state abroad. China can help us refine our gold locally. The same is true for cotton production, where China can set up industries to process our cotton locally,” he urged.

He then stressed that China can intervene in the organisation of communities at the grassroots level. In his opinion, this is an area in which China has built itself. In the field of air transport, Mr. Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela also invited the establishment of a direct flight Beijing-Ouagadougou.

“These are all areas in which China can contribute. It has the means and techniques to do so. We believe that this is not beyond China’s capacity,” the Head of Government said.

On the other hand, the Chinese diplomat agreed, recognizing that Burkina Faso and China can intensify their cooperation in several areas.

Nevertheless, he indicated that China is already involved in several areas such as health, energy, agriculture, etc.

On the military level, he said that China supports the actions of the Burkinabe authorities.

Ambassador Lu Shan continued: “Burkina Faso is currently facing many challenges, but we welcome the resilience of the Burkinabe people. We have a lot of similarities in our understanding of governance. China respects the will and choice of the Burkinabe people. We welcome the efforts of the authorities to ensure stability and peace for the development of the country.

The ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Burkina Faso was the bearer of a message of congratulations from the Chinese authorities to Mr. Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela, for his appointment as Head of Government.

In return, Mr. Apollinaire Joachimson Kyelem de Tambela congratulated the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for his reappointment as Head of the Chinese State.