The visiting Chinese parliamentary delegation on Friday held talks with Teshome Toga, speaker of the lower House of People's Representatives of Ethiopia, on ways of enhancing the relations, especially on foreign affairs and economic cooperation between the two countries.

During their talks, Ji Peiding, vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of China, said the longstanding Sino-Ethiopia relations need to be further enhanced.

Ji, who led the parliamentary delegation, said the trade and investment relations between the two countries are growing steadily, which reached 300 million birr (34.56 million U.S. dollars) last year.

However, he said, there is still a lot of potential that can be tapped by the two countries.

Chinese firms had a distorted image of Ethiopia due to the negative reports disseminated by the Western media, Ji said, adding that the delegation has observed the reality.

He pledged the Chinese parliament will help facilitate the investment in Ethiopia by Chinese firms.

He also said the Sino-African Forum, to be held in Beijing in November, will be co-hosted by Ethiopia and China.

For his part, Teshome said there are fast-growing economic relations between the two countries in the fields of construction, manufacturing and other business sectors.

Chinese companies are becoming much preferable in the construction sector due to their speed and efficiency, the speaker said.

Teshome said the free trade access, which China provided for 28 developing countries, including Ethiopia, will help the Horn of Africa country to make use of the Chinese market.

The Chinese parliamentary delegation is paying a four-day working visit to Ethiopia.

Source: Xinhua