New flights to help synergize development strategies of Ethiopia, China

Ethiopian Airlines’ new flights to Chengdu will help synergize the development strategies of Ethiopia and China, says a Chinese diplomat.

The statement was made by Liu Tao, counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia on Sunday during a ceremony held in Addis Ababa to inaugurate the flights to Chengdu, an economic and cultural hub for inland part of China.

The thrice weekly flights to Chengdu, the Capital of Sichuan province, is the airlines’ first to an inland heartland of China.

Liu said the new flights will help synergize the development strategies of Ethiopia and China and African continent and China at large, a key pillar of the ambitious Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.

The national air carrier already has flights to China’s capital city Beijing, its largest city Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, one of China’s leading manufacturing regions. With all five destinations added together, Ethiopian’s weekly flights to China reached 34.

“B&R initially proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 has by now been accepted by more than 100 individual countries and international organizations accepted with a belief it will inject great impetus to the joint effort for common development and prosperity of nations,” says Liu, adding Ethiopian Airlines will be the key to aviation connectivity in the African continent.

Busera Awol, Chief Commercial Officer of Ethiopian, for his part, said with the airlines achieving a 25 percent annual growth in the unforgiving aviation sector, it plans to use its 95 plus international destinations, 54 of them alone in Africa, to facilitate ease of foreign direct investment to the continent. Enditem

Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh

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