The new Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda, Shu Zhan, has said that the bilateral trade cooperation between China and Rwanda is growing stronger by the day.

He made the remarks Thursday evening at a reception to celebrate the Chinese New Year and spring festival at the embassy’s premises in Kigali.

"We have close cooperation in many areas including trade, culture, education, agriculture and infrastructure. Bilateral trade exceeded $100 million in 2009 and increased by 6.4 percent over the previous year,” he said.

Zhan noted that the figures for 2010 are not yet known but is believed it was sizable adding that presently 4,000 items exported from Rwanda to China enjoy Zero tariff treatment.

He appreciated the tremendous development Rwanda has registered in a short period of time attributing this to the good leadership prevailing in the country.

Joseph Habineza, the Minister of Culture and Sports who attended the event, said that Rwanda-China bilateral relations have yielded several tangible results in the areas of health, agriculture, education and infrastructure.

"As we commemorate the Chinese New Year, there is quite a lot to celebrate in terms of achievements registered regarding cooperation between our two countries,” he said.

The Minister added that in the area of socio-cultural cooperation, Rwanda has a lot to learn from the Chinese culture because it is very rich.

The event brought together several government officials, diplomats accredited to Rwanda and members of the business community.

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