NAIROBI -- Chinese ambassadors to Cote d'Ivoire, Namibia and South Africa have reiterated that China is Africa's friend and stressed the necessity of developing Sino-African cooperative projects with great efforts for mutual benefits and common development.

Ma Zhixue, China's ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, has told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that China and Africa are complementary in terms of economic development as China encourages its enterprises to explore business opportunities in Africa and seek win-win cooperation with African partners with Chinese capital, technology and equipment.

The ambassador suggested that the cooperative projects meet African demand and be suitable for African conditions so that they can bring benefits for both sides, saying these projects should be built on common development so that they can sustain like "rechargeable batteries."

He said that the cooperators should orient to the needs of the market and formulate long-term strategies of cooperation to make their cooperation sustainable, stressing that "common devotion, common management and common interest" are crucial for the success of the cooperation.

Chinese Ambassador to the southern African nation of Namibia Liang Yinzhu has said that China has all along regarded Namibia as one of the most reliable friends. The traditional Sino-Namibian friendship and cooperation have become closer continuously through helping and learning from each other in national building and rendering mutual understanding and support on the international arena.

He stressed that the high-level exchange of visits between the two countries last year and this year have added new impetus to bilateral pragmatic cooperation in various fields. The Sino-Namibian trade amounted to 140 million U.S. dollars last year and the areas of bilateral economic cooperation has extended into railway building and telecommunications.

Liang expressed appreciation for Namibia's stand of backing China's peaceful reunification and its support to China on many international issues.

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Liu Guijin has echoed the other two ambassadors' view that China and Africa are friends, saying that China will take more concrete actions to let more Africans feel China's sincerity in offering them help.

"China and African countries are both developing countries being challenged by the task of development and sharing identical or similar stand on major international issues and are economically complementary, thus they are significant strategic partners," said the ambassador.

He said the Chinese government will announce some more measures favorable for Africa's development on the upcoming Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation scheduled for Nov. 4-5.

Liu stressed that the relations between China and African countries are transparent, open and non-exclusive.

"China welcomes trilateral or multilateral cooperation in Africa," he said.