ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's four decades of economic growth and transformation is a lesson that Ethiopia should heed for its own anti-poverty efforts, an Ethiopian scholar said on Sunday.

"China has lifted 700 million people out of poverty since it started groundbreaking economic reforms in 1978, achieved through the implementation of participatory and strategic economic policies," said Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the AU and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), to Xinhua.

The four decades of economic policy not only allowed China to have rapid and sustainable development, but also enabled the Asian economic powerhouse to be a key engine in the global economy.

"The lessons Ethiopia can learn from China are the need for well-designed economic plans, redeploying resources to high priority activities and professional assessment of its comparative economic advantage in a way that advances and nurtures business confidence," said Costantinos.

Costantinos emphasized the need for Ethiopia to learn and adopt the good practices that led to China's unprecedented economic transformation and be an active participant in China-led economic initiatives like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the BRICs bank and the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.

Ethiopia, one of the first African countries to become a member of AIIB back in May 2017, is a key participant in the ambitious B&R Initiative and is already eyeing development assistance from the fledgling BRICs bank.