Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Ai Ping has expressed that both Chinese and Ethiopian governments are attaching great importance to the bilateral relations.  

The Ethiopian government has attached great importance to taking advantage of Chinese experiences of reform and development, and has regarded China as a partner of development instead of a donor. Ethiopia devotes itself to the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with China in the framework of South-South Cooperation, said the ambassador said in Addis Ababa in a recent interview with Xinhua.

In its foreign policy and national security policy and strategy, the Ethiopian government puts pragmatic, economic-centered diplomacy as top priority of the foreign policy and expects much from China in this regard.

He noted that at the same time, China has always been treasuring the traditional friendship and attaching great importance to the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in the new century.

China is committing itself to the establishment of a new South-South partnership, which will be on an equal footing, diversified in forms and toward mutual development, and stable in the long run.

China and Ethiopia share a wide range of common understandings regarding the modalities and priorities of mutual cooperation.

According to the Chinese experience, the ambassador stressed that the real development will not come alone from foreign aid, investment or trade, but from the emancipation and development of productivity and the subsequent increase of national income.

The Ethiopian leaders have rationally realized that economic development is not a simple calculation of input-output, but, it involves fundamental transformation of the society and drastic reforming of the economic system. Economic development can be achieved only by relying mainly on the country itself, with the foreign aid serving a supplementary role.

As the largest developing country with a population of 1.3 billion, China is in the position to understand the urgent needs of Africa, and China has already accumulated rich experience, practical technology and know-how in the areas where African countries are focusing their attention, such as rural and industrial development, capacity building and poverty reduction, etc.

Furthermore, China has the political will of actively supporting and promoting the China-Africa cooperation. In addition, China abounds with a large number of high-quality talents and an ever-growing team of experienced entrepreneurs.

He said all these advantages mentioned above could render a strong driving force to the expanding and deepening of China-Ethiopian political and economic cooperation.

Besides, both sides have reached some consensus on common interests and registered win-win results. The Ethiopian government sets the tapping of human resources, capacity building and infrastructure as the top priority, and it pays attention to the Chinese experience in these areas.

The ambassador expressed that therefore China will, in its bilateral ties with Ethiopia, maximize its strengths and minimize its weaknesses, and try to meet the practical needs of Ethiopia so as to make the cooperation more compatible to the Ethiopian strategy of development.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2003)