Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Tan Jian says relations between the two countries will rise higher in the year 2020 after China consolidated its position as Ethiopia's largest source of investment and trading partner and strengthened cooperation with Addis Ababa in various fields in 2019.

The Chinese envoy noted the remarkable achievements in the China-Ethiopia relations, which included the cooperation on the successful launch of Ethiopia's first ever remote sensing satellite, dubbed ETRSS-1 earlier this month.

He also noted that the two sides had cooperated on other areas such as economic, capacity building, health, education, and hi-tech areas.

"Driven by the momentum gathered from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and the Belt and road Initiative, notable achievements were achieved in China-Ethiopia relations in 2019," he said.

2019 saw frequent exchanges of high-level visits, including Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's visit to China that have featured the signing of various bilateral cooperation agreements, according to the ambassador.

According to the statistics by Ethiopian Investment Commission, from January to October in 2019, Ethiopia approved 147 FDI projects from China, with a year-on-year increase of more than 12 percent, accounting for 60 percent of the newly-approved FDI projects in Ethiopia this year.

"China has consolidated its positions as Ethiopia's largest source of investment and trading partner," Ambassador Tan said.

"For both China and Ethiopia, 2020 would be a historic year," he added.