(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-21 00:02

He highlighted the Neyala Water Supply Project contracted by the China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corporation (CMEC) and the  600 kilometers of roads in Darfur to be constructed by several Chinese companies.

When asked about the current bilateral economic relations between the countries, he said, "the current economic and trade relations between Sudan and China are excellent. "

Statistics from Chinese customs showed that the bilateral trade volume between the two countries rocketed from 103 million US dollars in 1990 to 3.35 billion US dollars in 2006. The bilateral trade figure surpassed 5.66 billion US dollars in 2007, up 69.1 percent year on year.

"Sudan is now China's third trade partner in Africa, trailing only Angola and South Africa, and China's earliest investment in Africa started in Sudan," he added.

In 2007, China's export volume to Sudan stood at 1.537 billion US dollars in 2007, up 9 percent year on year, with machinery products as the main export item.

China's import from Sudan topped 4.132 billion US dollars, surging 112.6 percent year on year, with oil products, sesame, chrome ore and leather as the main imports.

In recent years, Chinese investment to Sudan has been mutually beneficial and growing to cover many sectors including petroleum, electric power generation and transmission, infrastructure facilities, energy, mining, roads and bridges building, water supply, agricultural development, IT, telecom and so on, according to researcher Yao.

"Chinese companies now don't have any kind of problems doing business in Sudan. They abide by the laws and respect the local people and cultures there," said the ambassador.

He said that some Chinese financial, manufacturing and construction companies joined hands with the Sudanese in constructing gas turbine power stations and thermal stations, transmission lines and dams, including some famous projects like El Gaili Power Station Project, Merowe Dam Project, Khartoum North Power Station Project, which have benefited millions of Sudanese.

He said that bilateral economic cooperation was on the basis of mutual understanding and mutual benefits and was a win-win result.

Ambassador Salih said Sudanese and African leaders also appreciated the Chinese government's effort to solve the Darfur issue in a peaceful way and urged the relevant parties to solve the issue through negotiation.

He held that the two countries had great cooperation potential in agricultural technology, saying that this may become an even more important cooperation area than oil.

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