China-Africa partnership is strategic and founded on the principle of mutual benefit and mutual respect, said Ethiopian Ambassador to Beijing, Tefera Derbew.
Approached by CGTN’s “Coffee with Ambassadors” TV show ahead of the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which is scheduled to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6, 2024, Amb. Tefera Derbew explained how China-Africa cooperation has benefited both sides.
On the live TV show from the embassy, the ambassador first briefed on Ethiopia-China Relation, which he said is growing fast, attaining an “all-weather strategic partnership.”
“Ethiopia and China have enjoyed a longstanding and historic bilateral relation. It has been growing fast and it has been further enhanced and strengthened in the last two decades. Particularly over the past two years, following Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s visit to Beijing, the two sisterly countries have elevated their bilateral relationship to an all-weather strategic partnership,” he stated.
Regarding trade between the two, the ambassador said it is also growing fast. “Trade with some commodities like coffee, it is even growing faster.”
A recent report by CGTN indicates that Chinese coffee importers have been showing a huge appetite for the Ethiopian Arabica coffee. And China is one of the largest markets for the Ethiopian coffee, one of Ethiopia’s largest hard currency earning commodities. It buys about 20,000 metric tons of coffee arabica annually.
Despite the increase in volume of coffee export to China, the overall trade balance between the two is in favor of China, Amb. Tefera said. “We are working with our Chinese counterparts to narrow this gap. We are approaching this issue in three dimensions. The first one is we are working on increasing the volume and value of the currently exported commodities from Ethiopia to China. The second one is we are closely collaborating with our Chinese partners to add new commodities on their import list.”
The trade partnership between the two countries is strong and getting stronger under the FOCAC framework, he concluded.
Speaking on the benefits of China-Africa cooperation, he said the later has played key role. “Under the China-Africa cooperation, we can witness tangible development projects in Africa. China has been instrumental in developing the African infrastructure, which in turn has a hand in instrumental for the development of the African economy.”
China has been hugely involved in human and production capacity building. In the health and agri sectors, China has deployed professionals in many African countries to assist their brothers and sisters in the continent, he said.
“In the agriculture sector, Chinese agriculture professionals have been deployed to many parts of Africa. For example, I can mention Ethiopia. They have been part of our agriculture extension development system, especially in improving our extension workers’ skills and knowledge,” Amb. Tefera illustrated.
Another tangible manifestation for China-Africa tie is based on mutual benefit and respect is the tariff-free privilege China provided to African countries under the FOCAC framework to export of their goods to China, according to Amb. Tefera.