On July 7th, 2009, H.E. Ambassador Gu Xiaojie was interviewed by ETV. Mr. Gu introduced China-Ethiopian bilateral relationship and economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Mr. Gu said, as both China and Ethiopia were both countries with long history of civilization and splendid culture, the exchanges between them could date back to ancient times. Over the recent years, the bilateral relationship was developing rapidly with frequent exchange of high-level visits and deepening economic cooperation. The Chinese government encouraged its enterprises with high credit and capacity to invest in Ethiopia and also took effective measures to promote its imports from Ethiopia. For example, it provided duty-free treatment to many Ethiopian commodities exported to China. As a result, the volume of bilateral trade had been increasing quickly.

Mr. Gu highly appreciated the great social and economic achievements made by Ethiopian side and he was happy to note that the two sides’ cooperation on infrastructure had played a very positive role for the development of Ethiopia. China was pleased to share its development experience with Ethiopia and encouraged Ethiopia to take its own development route. Gu hoped that China and Ethiopia could learn from and support each other, so as to achieve a common development.