When I first visited Beijing, the Chinese capital, 10 years ago, the first thing that struck me was the sea of Chinese workers on their bicycles to work in the morning. I had a similar picture in Shanghai, the financial city of the People's Republic of China.

Today, the story about Beijing transportation is just incredible. There has been a massive improvement in the public transportation system and private cars in Beijing, which has more than one half of Ghana's population, are beyond compare.

Besides, the buildings, and I mean high rise ones, that have sprung up are just overwhelming. After all, construction, in which the Chinese are very good, has its own bank.

But what has accounted for all that? Perhaps it is no longer news that China is going through extensive economic growth.

Under its 10th five-year development programme from 2000-2006, the records show that China registered an average growth rate of 9.5 per cent. For example, the total Gross Domestic Product volume hit $2,257 billion, thereby making China the fourth largest economy in the world. What about its revenue? It was a whopping $369.9 billion, while foreign reserves exceeded $800 billion.

I do not want to bore readers with cold figures but the unvarnished truth of the matter is that the Red Dragon is on the move at a rate which makes some developed countries uneasy.

The Chinese are determined, well focused and committed to the success of their development programmes.

They have systematic and well thought- out programmes which can be monitored as they go along to ensure that the right thing is done they are also time conscious.

All the provinces prepare their programmes and growth target. Consequently, the development plan approved by the National Congress becomes a blueprint to be followed.

What is more, the leaders depend on research centers that they have around the globe.

Such is the development plan that if there is anything that is not moving right it will be identified in no time and solutions found to it.

Workers and farmers all approach their work with unparalleled high sense of commitment, dedication and discipline. There is no time to loaf about.

On discipline, the Deputy Director General at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Li Qiangmin, told me, "We start it from the kindergarten level."

Undeniably, China's "reform and opening up" under Deng Xiaoping's leadership in 1979 has gone far.

There is the strong will on the part of many Chinese that their development effort must succeed at all cost and they will not relent in their efforts in that direction.

Consequently, they try as much as possible to put the right person at the right place and expect that he will deliver.

The leadership is aware that with the extensive economic growth that the country has registered, there are bound to be problems.

Some of the critical problems confronting them are energy consumption and environmental pollution.

At the time when the 42 African journalists were leaving Beijing, the People's Republic of China had invited the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to discuss with his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao, how best the two countries could partner each other in energy production. Moves are under way to ensure that pipelines from Siberia send oil to China.

Additionally, though China is not blessed with profuse amounts of sunshine as we are, the country is working seriously on solar energy, wind power and other renewable resources.

Conscious of the threat of global warming, Chinese scientists and researchers are working assiduously to ensure that the country reduces its energy consumption per unit of GDP by a fifth.

In the 11th five-year development plan which the National People's Congress approved recently, the Chinese government is trying to check urban-rural disparities. With that in mind, the authorities are talking about "a new socialist countryside" by preventing the urban-rural divide from growing wider and providing farmers with basic welfare coverage. It is designed to improve agricultural productivity, help farmers to increase productivity, strengthen medical and educational system.

It is worth mentioning that as we traveled along Hefei, the capital of the Anhui Province, to Jianghuai County, in the province, we saw that every inch of fertile land was being cultivated and farmers were busily engaged in their activities, since they had just entered spring and the rains were on. The farmers also have the Hefei Agricultural Research and Production Centre, which provides them with information on new techniques of farming. This province has a total of 4.24 million hectares of land under cultivation.

Anhui Province does not take only agriculture seriously but technology as well. Indeed, it is in that province that the JAC vehicle you see around are produced. JAC means Jianghuai Automobile Company. The company combines German and Japanese technology in its production. It is the biggest comprehensive automaker in China, which produces 200,000 units of commercial vehicles in a year.

"We will go into passenger vehicle this year," says a JAC general manager.

The province has 82 universities and colleges, including a university of science and technology, and polytechnics. It has a Science Park, an Institute of Matter Science. The preponderance of educational institutions shows how the Chinese consider education as the mainspring of development.

Again, through its Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group (AFECG), the province demonstrates its skills and architecture which overwhelm those who use the services of the group. This company has undertaken many projects of architectural excellence which are dotted across the African continent, including some construction projects and military and police barracks in Accra.

From Anhui Province, our team went to Qingdao, the sailing city of China which will host the sailing competition of the 29th Olympic Games in 2008.

Qingdao Port has the largest container dock in the Yellow River region. It has business relations with 450 ports in 130 countries across the world. What is the capacity of this natural port? It has a 100 million tonne capacity, with a range of cranes overlooking the port as if they were soldiers ready for action. The province has its own construction firm, which undertakes various building projects in the province and elsewhere.

The Chinese claims that they are a developing nation. Perhaps they are overwhelmed by the huge population of 1.3 billion. The one family one child policy, under which parents are expected to have only one child, still prevails.

Feeding the huge population is not an easy task and that is why every available land is put to effective use.

The government has ways of meeting the demands of farmers. Supplies of agricultural inputs, for example, are done through various channels, including post offices.

China used to have effective co-operation with Africa in the late 1960s and 70s when the liberation struggle on the African continent was at its peak.

The People's Republic of China undertook a number of projects in some parts of the continent. Readily, the Tanzam rail which connected Tanzania with Zambia over a distance of 1,860 kilometres built between 1970 and 1976 comes to mind.

Africa certainly supported China during its struggle to take its seat in the United Nations in 1971 and the country has never forgotten about that support.

But now as an emerging global economic power, it wants to cooperate more with Africa and that is what led to the establishment of the Forum on China- Africa Co-operation in 2000.

The forum was to be the launching pad for effective mutual co-operation between China and Africa.

Come November this year, there will be the Beijing Summit and that was why 42 journalists drawn from 24 countries were invited by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to attend a workshop in Beijing and have first hand information on what China, as the leader of the developing nations, is doing.

Certainly, there have been improvements in the relationship and co-operation between the two blocs. No wonder trade between the two stood at $39 billion last year.

Indeed, many of the journalists were overwhelmed by the economic strides that China had made. The general consensus was that Africa had a lot to learn from China, especially its development programme.

Undeniably, Chinese leaders are well focused, and together with their people, they have resolved to have a robust economy whose benefit will be shared by all. Cooperation with China will do Africa good.

(The writer is among a group of 42 journalists from English speaking African countries who attended a workshop held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China).

Source: Daily Graphic