Premier Li Keqiang vowed to expand cooperation with Ethiopia during a meeting with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in Beijing on May 12.

Hailemariam is in Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, scheduled for May 14 and 15, 2017.

Premier Li said Ethiopia, a country with influence across Africa, was China’s important partner in the continent. China was willing to join hands with Ethiopia to cement political mutual trust and expand pragmatic cooperation, to make progress in 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans and capacity cooperation, he added.

China’s homemade passenger planes, and general-purpose aircraft, have competitive advantages in the international market, which Premier Li hoped Ethiopia could introduce, considering the regional aviation development in Africa.

He said China supported Ethiopia’s industrialization and agricultural modernization, and was willing to offer assistance in human resources and finance to push forward the course, helping enhance Ethiopia’s capacity of independent and sustainable development.

Premier Li also hoped Ethiopia would give full play to the bilateral capacity cooperation, a pilot practice China would promote across African countries.

Hailemariam said African countries and China share the same goal of development, thus their interests can be reached with mutual consent.

He said China-Ethiopia capacity cooperation has made a good progress, which boosted the country’s industrialization and agricultural modernization. Regarding the upgrade of the relationship as a new starting point, Hailemariam added Ethiopia hoped to further strengthen cooperation with China, and enhance cooperation in fields including inter-connectivity, energy, electric power, human resources, and people-to-people exchanges.

“Ethiopia has endeavored to build a regional aviation center and would also actively consider the procurement of China-made aircraft,” he said.

After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of agreements on economic and technological cooperation, human resource development, and other areas.

State Councilor Yang Jing also attended the meeting.