Dozens of African leaders are in Beijing to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The forum officially kicks off on Wednesday with a welcome dinner for the 50 African nations.

On Thursday, President Xi Jinping will deliver the keynote speech.

Xi has been meeting African leaders attending the summit, among them the presidents of Sierra Leone, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.

In his meeting with Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea, Xi said the summit is committed to drawing up a new blueprint for China-Africa cooperation, and marks a new milestone in the history of China-Africa relations.

In addition to boosting trade and people-to-people exchanges, African leaders have been meeting Chinese firms to encourage them to set up manufacturing hubs in their countries, to help move their industrial sectors up the value chain.

Meanwhile, China, Tanzania and Zambia have signed an initial agreement to rehabilitate a decades-old railway aimed at improving the rail-sea transportation in East Africa.

Xi and his counterparts from the two countries witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding on refurbishing the 1,860km Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority railway.

"China is willing to take this summit as an opportunity to make new progress in the revitalisation of the Tanzania-Zambia railway, cooperate to improve the rail-sea intermodal transport network in East Africa, and build Tanzania into a demonstration zone for deepening high-quality China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation," Xi said. (Xinhua/Reuters)