As senior officials from China and African countries are gathering in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to prepare for the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to be held on Nov. 8 to 9, African countries are heaping praises on China for the key role it has played in developing the continent's infrastructure.

Poor infrastructure, including roads, railways, electricity, waterways and air among others, has become one of the bottlenecks to Africa's rapid growth and development.

Most of the transportation systems the African countries are using were built in the colonial era and they have not changed much. The poor infrastructure in most African countries has had a negative impact on the continent's development.

African countries have already recognized that infrastructure is a prerequisite for increasing intra-African trade, internal circulation of people and goods but they lack the necessary money to invest in the sector.

At the African Union (AU) summit held at the beginning of this year, infrastructure development was high on the agenda. At the summit, African presidents cited poor infrastructure as one of the major obstacles in efforts to raise the quality of life of the continent's people.

In the past 50 more years, China has actively aided and participated in the infrastructure building in the continent. China has helped Africa construct more than 500 infrastructure projects, including more than 2,000 km of railways, more than 3,000 km highways and scores of stadiums across the continent.

The landmark projects of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, the Egyptian International Conference Center and the Port of Friendship in Mauritania among others are playing their important roles in the development of local economies.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, on behalf of the Chinese government, announced at the 2006 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that China would further expand aid scale to Africa by 2009 so that the scale of aid to African countries could be increased by one fold more than in 2006.

According to the latest statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, in terms of China's assistance to Africa, more than 90 percent had been implemented by the end of September 2009, with a prospect of doubling its assistance to Africa by the end of this year.

To help African countries to develop the agriculture sector so as to achieve the objectives of food self-sufficiency and poverty reduction, China has in the past three years sent 100 senior agricultural experts to Africa, mainly assisting African governments in mapping out agriculture development plans, improving sees and training technicians among other.

China promised to set up 10 special agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa and they are now all under construction.

China also promised to aid African countries in building 28 hospitals and 16 of them have been now under construction.

At the request of African countries, China promised to aid them in building 126 schools in rural areas, including building 96new schools and providing teaching equipment to 30 schools. The construction of 91 out of the 96 new schools will be completed by the end of 2009. The construction of the rest five will start at the end of 2009.

African countries and organizations have spoken highly of the role China has played in developing the continent's infrastructure and improving the quality of life of the African people.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has hailed China's "fundamental and transformative" involvement in the continent's infrastructure building.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua early this year, the Ethiopian prime minister said infrastructure development is critical for Africa's economic development, as every economic sector needs infrastructure to develop.

However, over the past 20 to 30 years, Africa's focus had been on the development of communication and education, and infrastructure had been neglected and constrained by a lack of finance, he said.

That is why China's involvement in Africa's infrastructure building "has had fundamental and transformative impact", the prime minister emphasized.

"Chinese companies have the ability to do quality work, do it in time, and with competitive prices," said Meles.

The African Union conference center that China is building for the Ethiopian government would be a landmark building for the capital city and the country once it's finished, and it will also solve the problem of lacking offices and space for work and meetings for the organization, according to him.

"The center will be an important symbol for the fast-growing relations between Africa and China," he added.

Chairperson of the Commission of AU Jean Ping has also lauded China's role in Africa's infrastructure development.

Also in an exclusive interview with Xinhua early this year, Jean Ping said the Chinese "dragon" has played a fundamental part in the improvement of infrastructure facilities across the African continent.

He said China is Africa's key strategic partner and has made significant contribution to the growth of infrastructure in Africa.

The AU chief said Chinese firms have rich experiences in overseas contract business, praising the quality of the roads, railways, bridges and airports constructed by Chinese firms across the continent.