China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday and called for greater cooperation with Africa's fastest growing economy, including in infrastructure, green industry, and the digital economy.

China's Foreign Ministry said Wang, who is on an annual New Year tour of Africa, said China is willing better align development strategies with Ethiopia to promote their "all-weather strategic partnership" to new heights.

Wang met Abiy in Addis Ababa during the first stop of his six-day Africa visit.

He called for accelerating the upgrading of trade and economic cooperation and advancing "high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Africa," according to official state news agency Xinhua.

Beijing aims to highlight countries it views as model partners of President Xi Jinping's flagship Belt and Road infrastructure programme and to expand markets, particularly in young, increasingly affluent economies such as Ethiopia, where the IMF forecasts growth of 7.2 percent this year.

Wang said he hopes Ethiopia will provide a "sound environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and conduct business," and said China looks to Ethiopia as playing "an important role in regional and international affairs."

Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in traditional areas such as trade, infrastructure, energy, transportation and law as well as in new areas such e-commerce, artificial intelligence and green energy, Xinhua said.

"They also agreed to expand cooperation in culture, tourism, media, education and think tanks," it added.

Wang will also travel to Somalia, Tanzania and Lesotho during his trip which runs until January 12.

REUTERS

China, Ethiopia pledge closer cooperation in areas from infrastructure to AI