Ethiopian PM says improvement of CPC´s governing capability contributes to China´s success

Source: Xinhua | 12-22-2008 08:35

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The improvement in the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s governing capability has helped bring about China's success over the past three decades, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Sunday.

Meles said 30 years of China's reform and opening-up drive has also brought tremendous changes to the CPC itself.

"Prior to the year 1978, policy changes in China were abrupt and disruptive, and there was no smooth transfer of power from one generation of leadership to another," Meles said in an interview with Xinhua.

"After 1978, there have been dramatic changes in both areas," he said.

"There were always changes, but in a smooth manner, very different from what happened prior to 1978. There has been a process of smooth transfer of responsibility from one generation of leadership to another generation."

Meles said the two are among the key reasons for the success of China's reform and opening-up drive, a watershed in China's development.

The decision to open up a country that had long been practicing a closed-door policy and to reform its struggling economy was made at the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, which started on Dec. 18, 1978.

"I think it is also a demonstration of the radical improvement in the governing capability of the CPC," said Meles, who also is chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).