Chinese Ambassador to Somalia Qian Jian on Wednesday said China will strongly support the Horn of Africa nation's peace and reconstruction process as part of the bilateral pact between the two countries.
Qian said Beijing had made positive contribution to Somalia in various fields including economic and social development to assist the country in acquiring political stability.
"The Chinese government has built over 80 infrastructural projects like hospitals, stadiums and roads to ease the burden of the Somali people. We have dispatched a medical team of more than 400 members in 13 batches to the country since 1991," the envoy said in Nairobi during celebrations to mark the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Qian told the guests, among whom were top government officials and diplomats, that under the strong leadership of the Communist Party, China had over the last 68 years achieved what it would take other countries centuries to attain.
In 2016, China's gross domestic product (GDP) hit about 11 trillion U.S. dollars and per capita GDP stood at 8,000 dollars, he said, noting that China is the second largest economy in the world.
Speaker of the House of People, Mohamed Osman Jawari, congratulated the Chinese government on the occasion and shared his country's best wishes to the Far East nation.
"Relations between Somalia and China commenced in 1960 after we attained independence, and ever since we signed our first official trade agreement in 1963, the Somali people have been beneficiaries of Chinese benevolence in the areas of maternal and child care as well as other infrastructural largess," Jawari said.
