Chinese embassy grants 1.2 billion CFA to fund the Wan Cun Tong project to bring satellite TV to 103 villages in Central African Republic

On February 20, 2018, the Chinese embassy in Central African Republic signed an agreement to provide a 1.2 billion CFA grant to fund the Wan Cun Tong project to bring satellite TV to 103 villages in Central African Republic, covering more than 2 million people. The 103 Central African villages selected by a mixed ministerial committee, and more than 200 Central Africans will undergo technical and television training. More than 200 Central Africans will also be recruited for the monitoring and maintenance of this project. This project was one of the initiatives announced by President Xi Jinping at the 2015 Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. The Chinese side pledged to “help implement Satellite TV projects in 10,000 villages in Africa”. This project was intended to enrich the cultural life of the Central African Republic and promote cultural exchanges between China and Africa. The project, with the help of StarTimes (四达时代), installed 2 solar projection TV systems for each village, equipped with 20 receiving terminals and one 32-inch digital TV, provided free of charge. The project also selected 22,246 villagers from the local villages to be trained to later manage the operation and maintenance of the installed devices. The project was officially launched on February 28, 2018 and completed on December 11, 2018.

Additional details

The Chinese characters for “Wan Cun Tong” is万村通, roughly translated as “ten thousand villages link”. The full version, 万村通卫星电视项目, is roughly translated as the “ten thousand villages through satellite TV project”

Number of official sources

10

Number of total sources

14