Chinese CCP to attend Ethiopian ruling party conference

Sept 21, 2006 (BEIJING) — To mark its good relations with the Ethiopian ruling party the Chinese Communist Party dispatched an official to attend the EPRDF, the official Xinhua reported.

At the invitation of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a representative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Wang Xiankui, left here on Thursday afternoon for Ethiopia to attend the EPRDF’s sixth national congress.

Wang, who is the deputy secretary of the CCP Gansu provincial committee, will also pay a good-will visit to Tanzania at the invitation of Chama Cha Mapinduzi, the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania.

Since the signing of an agreement on economic and technological cooperation with Ethiopia, in November 2004, the Chinese government invests in fields as agriculture, textile, resources development, infrastructure construction, mining and oil.

A Chinese oil firm (ZPEB) is undertaking seismic survey in east Ethiopia’s Ogaden basin. According to geological data, Ogaden and other four sedimentary basins in Ethiopia are endowed with oil and natural gas. The country’s current natural gas reserves are estimated to be 24 million cubic meters.

Chinese firms signed a 1.5 bln usd contract to upgrade Ethiopia’s telephone network .

China sold Ethiopia and its neighbor, Eritrea, an estimated $1 billion worth of weapons before and during their border war from 1998 and 2000.

(ST)