Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, inaugurated a China-backed cocoa processing industrial complex in its capital city Abidjan on Thursday.
Located in the PK24 industrial park in northern Abidjan, the cocoa complex is a cooperation project between China Light Industry Nanning Design Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNDC) and the Cote d'Ivoire Coffee-Cocoa Council, with a total investment of 130 billion CFA francs (approximately 231.7 million U.S. dollars).
Built on a 21-hectare site, the complex features a cocoa processing plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons and a training center for the cocoa and chocolate trades aimed at strengthening local skills and improving youth employability. It has created 1,400 jobs so far.
Vice President of Cote d'Ivoire Tiemoko Meyliet Kone, Chinese Ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire Wu Jie, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Cote d'Ivoire's Minister of State and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Rural Development, and Kone Brahima Yves, director for the Cote d'Ivoire Coffee-Cocoa Council, were among those present at the inauguration ceremony.
"I hereby take this opportunity to recall that one of the priorities of His Excellency the President of the Republic's policy is the improvement of the living conditions of producers, which necessarily involves guaranteeing a decent income and better remuneration for their activities. This industrial complex embodies the President of the Republic's vision of achieving the structural transformation of our economy by strengthening the link between production, processing, and consumption," Adjoumani said in a speech at the ceremony.
Kone Brahima Yves attributed the successful inauguration of the complex to the cooperative partnership between China and Cote d'Ivoire.
"This is the place to recall that the financing of the PK24 industrial complex was made possible thanks to the excellent relations between the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire and the People's Republic of China. This is why we extend our greetings and thanks to the Chinese ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, who is accompanying our partners at CNDC, the Chinese company that carried out the construction of this infrastructure," he said in his speech.
Representatives of local cocoa producers and exporters attending the ceremony were optimistic about the future of the country's cocoa industry.
"This factory represents a great breath of fresh air for us, cocoa producers of Cote d'Ivoire, because 65 years later, here is a factory where the cocoa producers of Cote d'Ivoire have just seen the light of day. We thank China because we had long relied on the West, and today China is giving us an opportunity to diversify our partnerships and especially a quality partnership that China offers us," Tia Marcel, a local cocoa producer, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an interview.
Cote d'Ivoire inaugurates China-backed cocoa processing complex
International guests who have dedicated their lives to historical truth joined China's 12th national memorial event honoring the hundreds of thousands of victims killed by Japanese troops in the Nanjing Massacre during World War II.
The memorial was held on Saturday at the public square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. China's national flag was flown at half-mast in the presence the crowd that included survivors of the massacre, local students, and international guests.
In one of the most barbaric episodes during WWII, the Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, they proceeded to kill approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.
Joining the crowd was Christoph Reinhardt, the great-grandson of John Rabe (1882-1950) who was then a representative of German conglomerate Siemens in the war-ravaged Nanjing. During the Nanjing Massacre, Rabe set up an international safety zone with other foreigners, and they together saved the lives of around 250,000 Chinese people between 1937 and 1938 from the Japanese invaders.
Throughout the massacre, Rabe continued to keep a diary. To this day, all his pages remain one of the most comprehensive historical records of the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors.
Sayoko Yamauchi, who was also in the crowd of mourners, arrived in Nanjing on Friday from Japan's Osaka to attend Saturday's ceremony, just as she has done almost every year since China designated Dec 13 as the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in 2014.
Yamauchi's grandfather was one of the Japanese soldiers who invaded Nanjing in January 1938. However, since first setting foot in Nanjing in 1987, she has dedicated herself to uncovering and spreading the truth about Japan's history of aggression and enlightening the Japanese public about their country's wartime atrocities.
In 2014, ahead of China's first National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, Yamauchi, along with 10 other individuals, received an award for her special contribution to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
By attending the grand memorial event, Reinhardt and Yamauchi both said they hope to convey a message of remembering history and cherishing peace.
"This is my fifth visit to China, and Nanjing, and the third times I visited the ceremony. I have a wish that these survivors survive again and again and again. But my other wish is that the families of the survivors, that they transport the information, the right intention like their ancestors, because anyone must hold a hand (during) this remembering," Reinhardt told China Central Television (CCTV) in an interview before the event began on Saturday.
"Our delegation is on its 20th visit to China, coming to Nanjing to express our heartfelt condolences to those who perished 88 years ago, to remember this history, and to reflect on what we can do for a new future. That's why we are here," Yamauchi told CCTV on board the bus that took her to a local hotel in Nanjing on Friday evening.
Int'l guests call for remembering history at China's national event honoring Nanjing Massacre victims
