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China to spend $35 mln on WAfrica's biggest theater
Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:39am ET

DAKAR (Reuters) - China, keen to raise its profile in resource-rich Africa, will plow $35 million into building West Africa's biggest theater in Senegal, an adviser to Senegal's president said on Tuesday.

China is strengthening its political and economic ties with the world's poorest continent as it chases oil and raw materials to feed its fast-growing economy.

Beijing has funded the construction of sports stadiums around Africa but the theater in Senegal is one of its first major forays into the realms of high art. It also plans to build an arts museum in Senegal before the end of 2007.

"It will be the biggest (theater) and the most beautiful one in the sub-region," architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa and adviser to President Abdoulaye Wade told Reuters.

Atepa said the theater would combine classic and modern architecture and would be built on three levels with 18,000 seats and parking for 3,000 cars.

Beijing announced debt relief for Senegal worth 160 million Yuan ($20 million) after Wade's visit to China last week.

Senegal and China resumed diplomatic ties last October after Dakar broke its relations with Taiwan. China will also build a 250 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station in Senegal to help the country deal with power shortages.