CAIRO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Egyptian officials hailed on Monday the pioneer role of China in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world since the beginning of this year, and the Chinese people have worked to combat it with a teamwork spirit, and achieved great strategic results in this regard," said Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Liao Liqiang.

He added that China has made remarkable achievements in accelerating prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and, at the same time, promoted economic and social development.

"Since the second quarter of this year, the Chinese economy has returned to growth, making China the first country in the world to resume its economic growth," Liao said.

The ambassador noted that the pandemic has proved that building a community with shared future for mankind is the right way to meet common challenges, stressing the international community can only overcome such crises through solidarity and cooperation.

He added that the pandemic cannot stop the Chinese-Egyptian cooperation, pointing out that the total bilateral trade volume reached 6.69 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2020, an increase of 2.7 percent year on year.

Egypt was the first Arab and African country to establish official ties with China, and the two countries elevated their relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed said that China and Egypt are highly cooperating, and both governments have been providing immediate mutual support, to help in facing this ongoing crisis.

For his part, First Deputy Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament Mahmoud al-Sherif said Egypt is also one of the first countries to support Chinese-proposed Belt and Road Initiative aimed at strengthening international cooperation in order to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Under the framework of the initiative, al-Sherif added, the Egypt-China TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has become a model of China-Africa cooperation.