On February 4th 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Algerian National Council's President Ban Saleh, the National People's Assembly's Speaker Karim Younes and President Ahmed Ouyahia at the State Guest Hotel where he was staying.
When meeting with Ban Saleh and Karim Younes, President Hu Jintao made positive remarks on the profound traditional friendship between the two peoples and the marked achievements made since establishment of diplomatic relations four and a half decades ago, noting that the two sides have always supported and coordinated with each other in international and regional affairs. Hu Jintao said that the Chinese government and people cherish the friendship between China and Algeria, attach great importance to developing friendly bilateral cooperation in various fields and stand ready to join Algeria to promote the all-round and intensive development of the friendly cooperative relations between the countries in the new century.
Speaking of exchanges between the legislatures of the two countries, Hu Jintao said that China's National People's Congress has maintained close ties with Algerian National Council and National People's Assembly. In view of the fact that both countries are making efforts to deepen reforms, spur economy, raise living standards and develop democratic and legal systems, legislatures of the two countries should continue to enhance exchanges and share experience to make further contributions to development of their respective countries and their bilateral relations.
Algerian National Council's President Ban Saleh, a veteran who has fought in Algerian independence war, told Hu Jintao that the Algerian people had received firm support and generous assistance both in their fight for national independence and in their efforts to develop the country, so every Algerian cherishes the friendship between the two countries. Algeria is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in an all-round manner, learn from China for its experience in development and promote common prosperity of the two countries.
Mr. Karim Younes, Speaker of Algerian National People's Assembly, said that economic globalization has had great impact on developing countries. The world-acclaimed rapid development of China has set an example for other developing countries. All members of Algerian National People's Assembly hold that Algeria should enhance cooperation with China to better safeguard the rights and interests of developing countries.
When meeting with Prime Minister of Algerian government Ahmed Ouyahia, Hu Jintao said that the Chinese and Algerian peoples have always been friends and brothers sharing weal and woe regardless of the geographical distance. China attaches great importance to the development of China-Algeria strategic cooperative relations and is ready to deepen friendly cooperation in various fields with Algeria to breathe new life into friendship between the two countries in the new century. Speaking of economic and trade ties between the two countries, Hu Jintao said that Algeria has become an important partner with China in terms of its economic cooperation with Africa, noting that the two economies share complementarity and have huge potentials and broad prospects for economic and trade cooperation. He added that the two sides should try to find new growth poles to expand bilateral trade, suggesting that cooperation can be enhanced in the fields of infrastructure construction, agriculture and human resources development and explorations should be made to identify new channels and means. China supports its businesses engaged in home appliances, medicine, pharmaceutics and textiles in developing various forms of cooperation with Algeria. The two governments should also give guidance and facilitation to the businesses and constantly improve laws and regulations on investment, tariff, tax and visa so as to create a more enabling environment for businesses of the two countries to invest and operate.
Ouyahia said that cooperation between Algeria and China come in multi-fields and is laden with fruits, with broad prospects for even better development. Many construction projects in Algeria have been contacted to China's businesses, which have won themselves strong reputations for high quality with their clout. Algeria would like to see more businesses from China to invest in the country and take part in the construction of Algeria's railways, dams, freeways and civil architecture and in the development of its oil.
In the morning of that same day, Hu Jintao also met with staff of Chinese Embassy in Algeria and representatives of businesses and institutions invested by China in Algeria.