China's top legislator Wu Bangguo said in Addis Ababa on Monday that his country attaches great importance to its development of relations with Ethiopia.

"My current visit to Ethiopia is aimed at bringing the existing all-round cooperative partnership to a new level and injecting new life into the traditional friendship between the two sides," said Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC).

"This is my first visit to Ethiopia. During my visit I witness the Ethiopian people's affection towards the Chinese people, and Iextend my good wishes to the Ethiopian people," said Wu during his meeting with Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis.

"As a true friend of the Ethiopian people, we are happy to see the achievements made by Ethiopia in implementing the agriculture-led Industrial development plan in recent years. We are also happy to see that Ethiopia has become an example of how to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

"I yesterday had very good talks separately with Teshome Toga, speaker of Ethiopian Council of People's Representatives, and Speaker of Ethiopian Federal Council Degefi Bula, reaching many important consensuses," said the Chinese top legislator.

During his talks with the two Ethiopian speakers, the two sides agreed to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two countries' legislatures as part of their efforts to push for improvement of people-to-people friendship, strengthening mutual political trust and promoting mutual benefit in economic cooperation, according to Wu.

Wu is on a five-African nation tour. Ethiopia is the third leg of his two-week-long visit to Africa.

For his part, Ethiopian President Girma said his country is satisfied with the better relations with China.

The president said he is very happy with China's decision to set up an agricultural technology demonstration center in Ethiopia.

He believed the demonstration center is conducive to furthering the agricultural cooperation between Ethiopia and China, improving Ethiopia's agricultural development level and helping the country's efforts to reduce poverty.

During the talks, Wu appreciated Ethiopia's commitment to the one-China policy. Wu pledged that China will speed up the construction of the demonstration center, which helps deepen the realistic cooperation in areas like farming.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2008)