Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday urged Chinese companies to speed up the telecommunications cooperation between his country and China.

"Time is pressing. We must accelerate the pace," said Bouteflika while visiting the Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Algeria hopes to establish long-time technical contact with Huawei, and further strengthen cooperation and exchanges in the field of telecommunications, said Bouteflika, adding his country is also willing to become a technological center of Huawei in North Africa as a Huawei training center is to be established by the end of this year in Algeria.

Ren Zhengfei, president of Huawei, said his company has become one of the main providers for the telecommunications market in Africa. Huawei sold 1.35 billion U.S. dollars of products in Africa last year and has so far trained more than 3,000 technical experts for the continent.

Cape Verde Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves also visited Huawei on Monday, expressing the hope to encourage more Chinese hi-tech companies to invest in Africa through the mechanism of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The two-day summit, the highest-profile gathering between Chinese and African leaders, concluded Sunday after a declaration and an action plan for 2007-2009 had been adopted.

The summit was attended by 41 heads of state or government and senior officials from all the 48 African countries that have diplomatic ties with China, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations.

Malian President Amadou Toumany Toure has praised the holding of the summit, saying it was a perfect meeting and Chinese President Hu Jintao's speech not only answered the questions commonly concerned but also expressed China's readiness to help African development.

Also on Monday, wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited a picture show on Egyptian scenery.

Source: Xinhua