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)
