Sitting on the northeastern shore of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater lake, the central Ugandan sub-region of Greater Masaka is virgin agricultural land where crops thrive in the tropical climate. According to Masaka's Chief Administrative Officer George Ntulume, farmers grow commercial crops ranging from coffee and tea to bananas and pineapples for the domestic market. Locals also rear cattle, goats and pigs.

However, despite the natural endowments, Greater Masaka farmers do not have the technological capacity to reap the area's full agricultural potential.

But authorities in the sub-region, which comprises the eight districts of Masaka, Rakai, Lyantonde, Lwengo, Ssembabule, Kalungu, Bukomansimbi and Kalangala, now believe they may have found a solution to the perennial puzzle.

Last year, members of the China-Africa Association in Uganda (CAFAU), an organization composed of local business owners and politicians, began working on an initiative aimed at "twinning" provinces, cities and municipal councils in Uganda and China.

The Chairman of CAFAU, Eng. Benon Mugarura, said they have reached a verbal agreement with the authorities in China's Sichuan Province for a mutually beneficial twinning arrangement, which will see Chinese companies get concessions when they seek land to invest in the sub-region.

"The Sichuan Wande Investment Group is interested in investing in value-addition [projects] targeting the agriculture sector. They are going to start an industrial park in Greater Masaka," said Mugarura. "They are going to be involved in agro-processing industries and the local people will be the suppliers of raw materials for those industries."

According to the Chairperson of Masaka, Joseph Kalungi, authorities in the sub-region have already agreed to offer the Sichuan-based company around 20,000 acres to accommodate the industrial park.

CAFAU officials hope that in exchange for such concessions, investments from Sichuan will spur economic development in the largely impoverished sub-region.

"The indirect benefits will accrue in the areas of social needs. When the park is established, there will be need for new schools, hospitals and an airport," said Mugarura.

Kalungi said Greater Masaka authorities and their counterparts in Sichuan will sign an agreement identifying areas where the Chinese province can prop up the Ugandan sub-region with its superior organizational and technological competencies.

"We have already identified our priorities regarding the basic requirements of each district. We are going to sign a memorandum of understanding so that each district benefits according to its priorities," said Kalungi.

Although the launch date for the twinning project has not yet been fixed, officials say the discussions held so far point to an investment of no less than $300 million from the Chinese companies in Greater Masaka.

The idea of twinning administrative units in China and Uganda was born after the First Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation (FCALGC) summit in Beijing in August 2012.

During the summit, Uganda's Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi was elected first chairman of the FCALGC board. When the private-sector members of the Ugandan delegation returned home, they agreed to form CAFAU as an informal vehicle for improving business relations and informal people-to-people linkages between the business communities in China and Uganda. CAFAU began its operations in February 2013. Since then, according to Mugarura, they have hosted five business delegations from Beijing, and five Chinese provinces of Shandong, Liaoning, Sichuan, Guangdong and Shaanxi. The teams have held discussions on the possible ways that Ugandan cities can benefit from twinning with Chinese provinces.

"We are looking at many aspects in the twinning program: infrastructure development in terms of roads, electricity, schools and hospitals. When we twin (cities and regions), they work together toward socio-economic development," said Mugarura.

In 2012, China overtook the United Kingdom as Uganda's biggest trade partner. According to information from the Chinese Embassy in Uganda, bilateral trade between the two countries reached $524 million in 2013, with Uganda's exports to China shooting up by 68 percent from the previous year to $72 million.

If the twinning arrangement takes root, it could open a fresh, previously unexplored chapter in the burgeoning relationship between the world's second largest economy and a small land-locked country in Africa's Great Lakes region. And that chapter could set the stage for redefining China-Africa relations. 

(Reporting from Uganda)