Guinean President Umaro Sissoco Embaló will make his first official visit to China between the 10th and 12th of July, during which he will sign a general framework cooperation agreement between Bissau and Beijing.

Embaló, the second Guinean president to visit the country, is due to fly to Beijing on Tuesday, beginning his visit the following day to analyze all aspects of cooperation between the two countries in the fields of education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, fisheries and support for the defense sector.

In the field of education, China currently provides annual scholarships to the Guinean government and, through its embassy in Bissau, offers training opportunities to the country’s best students at Chinese universities.

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In the field of health, China provides doctors for the hospital in Canchungo, in the north of Guinea-Bissau, and also for the Main Military Hospital in the Guinean capital.

China has also provided aid to Guinea-Bissau for the construction of infrastructure, particularly public buildings. The palaces of the government, the National People’s Assembly (ANP, parliament) and the judiciary were built through Chinese cooperation.

Guinea-Bissau’s only highway, an 8.2-kilometer stretch linking Osvaldo Vieira International Airport to the town of Safim, is also currently being built by China, at a cost of 13.6 million euros.

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Moreover, in 2019, China donated 44 agricultural tractors and tillers, 50.000 sacks of rice and more than 20.000 sacks of fertilizer to the Guinea-Bissau government, for a total value of 53.300 euros.

Among other members of the presidential initiative government, Embaló will be accompanied to China by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Carlos Pinto Pereira, who is flying to Beijing early to prepare for the arrival of the Guinean head of state, and by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Biague Na Ntan.