(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-28 14:07

MAPUTO -- The Mozambican and Chinese governments have signed an agreement in Maputo on bilateral cooperation for the period 2008-2009, aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations, according to the local media AIM on Thursday.

The document was signed on Wednesday by Mozambique's Deputy Foreign Minister, Eduardo Koloma, and the Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying, during the third meeting of the joint Commission for Technical, Economic and Trade Activities, the news agency said.

At the signing ceremony, the two sides drew up a balance sheet of their activities since the last session, held in April 2004, and made work plans for the period until the next meeting, scheduled for 2009.

Having concluded that this cooperation was positive during the last few years, they agreed as priorities the areas of education, health, agriculture, infrastructures and sports.

It was in this context that the Chinese government has pledged 55 million U.S. dollars for the building of an Agricultural Technology Center, a project that was announced during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Mozambique in February.

China is also granting 300,000 dollars to support the rehabilitation of infrastructures destroyed by natural disasters in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Fu Ziying described the signing of these agreements as a moment to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the two countries and renew the Chinese commitment to support Mozambique in the fight to reduce poverty and underdevelopment, and in all efforts to improve the socioeconomic conditions of the Mozambican people.

Koloma stressed the importance of the 30 years of cooperation between Mozambique and China, and claimed that, at international level, the two countries harmonize common strategic positions for the preservation of peace, defense and security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.