China-Africa: Senior Chinese lawmaker begins official visit to 5 African countries
Abdelaziz Ziari (R), Speaker of Algeria’s National Assembly, greets Wu Bangguo (L), chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, at an airport in Algiers, capital of Algeria, on Nov. 3, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
A senior Chinese lawmaker, Wu Bangguo, on Monday began a two-week official visit to Algeria, Gabon, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Seychelles, APA learnt here.
A communiqué of the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) said the chairman of its standing committee Wu will also visit the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa during his visit to Ethiopia.
In recent years, China’s top leaders mainly the president, the prime minister and the top legislator have been paying annual official visits to Africa, because of the huge Chinese interests in the continent.
Bilateral trade between China and Africa will exceed 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, two years earlier than expected, according to expectations of the Chinese Customs Administration released recently.
The first-half figures showed that bilateral trade grew almost 66 percent year-on-year to 53.14 billion U.S. dollars. The growth rate was about 40 percent age points higher than the year-earlier level.
(apanews)