QINGDAO, June 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Representatives from the ruling parties of nine African countries on Monday arrived in Qingdao, a port city in East China's Shandong Province, on the third leg of their 16-day study-and-investigation tour in China.

    In the four-day tour in Shandong, the African delegation, including 17 members from the ruling parties of nine African countries, is scheduled to visit the Qingdao-based Haier Group,a leading household appliance manufacturer in China, economic development zones in Qingdao, as well as private companies in Zhucheng, a city in the southeast of the province.

    Invited by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the delegation consists of party officials from Cameroon, Djibouti, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles and Togo.

    The African party officials attended a seminar on further strengthening Sino-African relations when they were in Beijing, and visited state-owned enterprises, an oil base and a national nature reserve in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province last week.

    China and African nations, in recent years, have witnessed frequent exchanges of high-level visits and enhancement of cooperation on international affairs. According to the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, more than 100 officials of the ruling parties from 24 African countries have visited China for exchanges of views with their Chinese counterparts since 1998. Enditem