China's rapid social and economic development gives Africa hope, a senior Tanzanian media official said on Thursday.

In an exclusive interview here with Xinhua, Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) Director General Tido Mhando highlighted China's great achievements in the past 60 years since the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

"China's rapid development shows how much can be achieved if we African countries do the same as China has done, with the help of China, it gives Africa hope," Mhando noted.

He expressed his congratulation to the 60th founding anniversary of China which is upcoming on Oct. 1 this year.

The director general also described the cooperation between Africa and China as "growing to a proportion unbelievable", not the same when only a few African countries keep close relations to China from the very beginning.

China's development has provided the third-world countries with a new alternative to establish cooperation as China opens market, he added.

On China's financial assistance to Africa countries with no strings attached, Mhando noted that this serves as a mutual-benefit cooperation between Africa and China, which is also commercially oriented.

Africa has business interests to China, while China is also a huge and enormous market for African countries, which expect to penetrate the Chinese market with a faster growing speed, according to Mhando.

On China's progress in information releasing sectors, Mhando noted that China is releasing information openly, which is quite a step forward and "something positive as a move from one of the most populous country" in the world.

It is very helpful for people around the world to know more about China with the population of more than 1.3 billion, he added, hailing Chinese media's update and transparent report on last year's major earthquake in southwestern China and the 2008 Beijing Olympics among other big news events.

On the upcoming World Media Summit initiated by Xinhua, Mhando termed the Summit as "a platform" for world media high-levels to meet, discuss and find ways to develop media of countries for mutual benefit.

"Let's put our heads together to solve out the problems," he noted, expressing his interest to strengthen cooperation between TBC and the Chinese media.

Since 2007, the state owned television station and Radio Tanzania are now both under the umbrella of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, a state-run media which got the new name from Tanzania Broadcasting Services in March 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2009)