On 31 May, the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) financed by China Eximbank was officially completed and open to traffic. President Liu Liange of China Eximbank was invited by the Kenyan government to attend the inauguration ceremony.

The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is a standard gauge railway that runs 472kms, connecting the port city of Mombasa and the capital city Nairobi. As the first newly constructed railway in Kenya in the past century, the SGR is also the largest infrastructure project since the independence of Kenya. It will extend further to Uganda in the west and Rwanda in the south, hopefully forming a railway network with a total length of over 2,800kms.

The SGR is an international main line that adopts Chinese standards, funding, technologies, management and equipments, and it is also the initial section of the main artery of communication in East Africa. It plays a significant role in bringing Chinese railway standards to Africa and promoting regional economic integration in East Africa.