ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopia has been benefiting from a preferential trade policy with the Chinese government to the least developed African countries, as its export to China rose drastically, says Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Lin Lin.

    In an interview with Xinhua on Saturday, two days after China released its first African policy paper, China's African Policy, Lin said the trade volume between Ethiopia and China, which stood at 150 million U.S. dollars in 2003, rose to 250 million dollars over the first nine months of 2005.

    The volume of China-bound exports from Ethiopia has shown dramatic increase, he said, attributing mainly to the Chinese government's preferential policy, a zero tariff treatment on exports from African countries, which was put into force in January 2005.

    Describing the growth rate over the past three years of the trade exchanges between Ethiopia and China as impressive, the Chinese ambassador, nevertheless, admitted that the trade exchanges was still in China's favor.

    "I believe that there is a good potential for the further expansion of trade between our two countries," he said.

    The preferential treatment, he said, was granted as part of bilateral efforts to narrow the trade gap after repeated mentions from the Ethiopian side that the trade exchange has always been in China's favor.

    "The Chinese government is taking a lot of concrete measures to encourage the Chinese firms to import more from African countries."

    On China's investment in the Horn of Africa country, the ambassador said, the growth in the volume of Chinese investment to Ethiopia has not been as impressive, though it has been increasing over the years.

    By the end of 2003, there were 14 Chinese companies in Ethiopia with an investment volume amounting to 10 million dollars, he said,adding that the figure rose to 33 million dollars as 31 Chinese companies entered Ethiopia last year.

    He said his government will do more to encourage investment to Ethiopia from China.

    China's cooperation with Ethiopia focuses mainly in the fields of agriculture, infrastructure and human resources development, according to Lin.

    Concerning the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, which was set up in 2000, Lin said the forum, which has met twice already at the ministerial level, will meet for the third time in November this year at the level of heads of state and government.

    During the two ministerial meetings, a number of important resolutions were passed and implemented, including a 10 billion yuan (1.24 billion dollars) debt write-off to indebted African countries as well as the zero tariff treatment.

    "The forum has become an effective mechanism for the collective dialogue and multilateral cooperation between China and Africa and put in place an important framework and platform for a new type of China-Africa partnership, featuring long-term stability, equality and mutual benefit," he said.

    In 2003, Ethiopia hosted the second ministerial meeting of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, which adopted a program for China-Africa cooperation in economic and social development.

    "We are determined to make the new China-Africa partnership a highly dynamic and effective one by working together to implement the program with concrete measures," Lin said. Enditem