(Reuters) — China will invest 5-billion Yuan to build Ethiopia’s first industrial park, part of a plan to help the Horn of Africa nation mimic the Asian giant’s rapid economic growth, an Ethiopian minister said.

Up to 80 Chinese companies involved in textiles, leather and manufacturing construction equipment are expected to invest in the industrial zone being built at Dukem, 37 km (23 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa.

“The construction of the industrial zone will help Ethiopia emulate China’s 20 years of accelerated development,” Trade and Industry Minister Tadesse Haile told Reuters on Friday.

Due to be built on a 5 sq km (2 sq mile) plot over the next five years, the China-Africa Development Fund is financing the project.

China is investing heavily in Africa and has won favour among many governments who prefer its no-strings-attached policy towards aid, in contrast to Western governments that usually place conditions on its donations.

China sees Africa as a key frontier for selling its goods and acquiring resources like oil and metals to help feed its fast growing economy.

Ethiopia has forecast economic growth of nearly 11 percent in 2008 after expanding at an official rate of 10 percent annually for the last five years.

The country of more than 80 million remains one of the world’s poorest and depends on agriculture for half of gross domestic product, 60 percent of exports and 80 percent of total employment.