Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Gives Suggestions on China-Kenya Pragmatic Cooperation

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (L) shakes hands with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 18, 2011. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

NAIROBI, March 18 (Xinhua)--Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan held talks with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi on Friday, during which he made suggestions on how to further expand bilateral pragmatic cooperation in the future.

Wang said that China would like to work with Kenya to enhance traditional cooperative relations between the two countries. He said improvement in cooperation mechanisms should be made to further strengthen planning and guidance for bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

China should expand its aid to Kenya to actively implement Kenya-related projects under the frame of Sino-African Cooperation Forum, he said.

The vice premier vowed to encourage China's enterprises to enlarge the volume of imports from Kenya in a bid to promote balanced development of mutual trade, stressing that China should provide supports to more Chinese enterprises to invest in Kenya while Kenya should further improve its investment environment and put forward relevant incentive policies.

He also relayed cordial greetings of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Odinga.

Odinga said Kenya would never forget that China has been lending a helping hand when Kenya experiences its hard time.

The prime minister stressed that both sides enjoy a profound traditional friendship which has been advancing smoothly in recent years. He noticed that Kenya is now pushing ahead the implementation of Vision 2030, Kenya's economic development plan, which creates opportunity for the East African country to expand cooperation with friendly countries including China and push Kenya- China and Sino-Africa relations to a higher level on the platform of Sino-African Cooperation Forum.

At the invitation of the government of Kenya, a delegation led by Wang arrived here for official visit to Kenya from Thursday to Sunday, which is also the first leg of the vice premier's three- African countries-visit followed by Zimbabwe and Angola.

Source: Xinhuanet