Ethiopian and Chinese workers of the China Communication Construction Company sit at the site of the Addis Ababa-Adama expressway on Monday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is on a four-nation African tour, attended the ceremony marking the finishing of the project’s 78-kilometer first phase. Photo: AFP

 
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome Tuesday, and the two agreed to further consolidate bilateral ties and cooperation.

Noting that Mulatu once worked in China and the two both studied at Peking University, Li said China highly appreciates the president's long-standing, important contribution to the development of China-Ethiopia and China-Africa relations.

The China-Ethiopia relationship has now advanced into a new pattern featuring all-dimensional and multi-tiered cooperation with inter-governmental, inter-party and people-to-people exchanges functioning as pillars, while political, economic and trade, and cultural cooperation serving as the mainstay, noted the premier.

Li said he has reached important consensus with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on developing bilateral ties and cooperation.

Developing infrastructure and promoting opening-up are the two "wheels" that lead developing countries to economic take-off, he said. He added that China is willing to cement its traditional friendship with Ethiopia, expand cooperation in the manufacturing industry, and infrastructure construction including railway and road building, and intensify collaboration in finance and the establishment of industrial parks, so as to bring the bilateral friendly cooperative relationship to a new stage.

Mulatu said that Li choosing Ethiopia as the first leg of his ongoing Africa tour shows that Beijing attaches high importance to Ethiopian relations.

The Ethiopia-China relationship, which is based on mutual respect, win-win cooperation and genuine friendship, is very close and robust, he said, while expressing his gratitude for China's valuable support, unselfish assistance and Chinese enterprises' active participation in socioeconomic development.

Ethiopia, he said, admires China's development achievements and is willing to treat China as a paragon while learning from China's development experiences.

The president also said his country is ready to expand cooperation with China in the construction of rail, road and other infrastructure, and welcomes more Chinese enterprises to invest in Ethiopia so as to facilitate Ethiopia's economic growth and transformation and realize common development.

Xinhua