The Addis Ababa Confucius Institute on Saturday launched Chinese language training for Ethiopian diplomats in the capital Addis Ababa.

The diplomats are from the office of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs numbering about 25.

The training is the second in its kind here in Ethiopia after the Institute started same training for academic teachers at the Ethio-China Polytechnic College in Addis Ababa, said Zhai Fengjie, Director of the Addis Ababa Confucius Institute.

"The Institute has already started providing the basic Chinese to 28 academic teachers at the Ethio-China Polytechnic College based on their request to learn Chinese language; and today is the second one for free teaching for officials from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said Zhai.

According to the director, the institute has a short term plan to give free Chinese language teaching to Ethiopian children from different parts of the country.

"Our aim is to teach the Chinese language to our friends who are interested to learn the language and improve their communication in the language; in that we will also enhance mutual cooperation and relations between Ethiopia and China," she added.

Zheng Guojin, cultural councilor in the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, said the training to the diplomats helps a lot for exchange of culture, knowledge, and expertise between the peoples of China and Ethiopia.

He said China has a civilization history of over 5,000 years, and such training would enable to share its rich experience to Ethiopians.

The counselor said the training would also enhance the existing relations between the two sisterly countries.

Lu Shuangying, dean of the Ethio-China Polytechnic College, underscored that the training is a good opportunity for enhanced cultural exchange between the two countries.

"The Chinese government has given due attention to the cooperation with Ethiopia, and has invested about 200 million Chinese Yuan (about 29.5 million U.S. dollars)on the Ethio-China Polytechnic College," he added.

Gennetu Mellese, head of the Training Main Division in the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Ethiopian government is committed to escalating its overall relations with China.

He witnessed the support China is providing to Ethiopia in different sectors.

This time China is helping Ethiopia in different development sectors, he said, adding Ethiopia has been taking various measures to boost its diplomatic and economic relations with China.

Some of the trainees told Xinhua that they are extremely happy for having the chance to learn the Chinese language which is of the best performing economy these days.

"It helps me a lot to understand China more and to further enhance relation with Chinese people. I am happy by having this chance because it is a good opportunity to have way of Chinese communication and later I will know more about China," said Lam Gany Deng, one of the trainee diplomats.

Fireselam Tekle-Mariam is another trainee in this Chinese language training.

She said the training will significantly help them to further enhance the good relations between Ethiopia and China.

"Nowadays we have good relations with China and both diplomatic and economic one; so as we are from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the training will help us a lot to learn China for our diplomatic missions," said Fireselam.

Another trainee Getachew Dejene on his part said the training would enable us to learn the culture, civilization, and technological innovations of the Chinese people.

He said he is extremely happy by having the opportunity to attend the training with his counterparts in the ministry.