After years of investing directly in African nations, it is time for China to join hands with its African partners to explore other markets, a high-level Algerian official said.

"Why don't we invest together in other African or Arabian countries?" Abdelkader Bensalah, president of the Council of the Nation of Algeria, told China Daily on Sunday.

Algeria would like to encourage cooperation among enterprises from both countries and make "strategic investments", he said.

Bensalah is in China as the representative of Algerian President Adelaziz Bouteflika at the Boao Forum. He met with President Xi Jinping on Sunday afternoon.

Algeria is the largest nation on the African continent.

Trade between China and Algeria reached $6.42 billion in 2011, 24.1 percent more than the previous year. Algeria is China's largest market of charted projects in Africa and China is the largest source of Algeria's imports.

China's cooperation with Algeria will extend to multilateral platforms, such as those including other African countries and Arab nations, he said.

Bensalah said he flew to China to attend the Boao forum because "it is a forum organized in China, a country that is a friend, where new political leadership just came into power".

"From this point of view, our presence here also testifies to our friendship with the Chinese people."

Besides, he added, "it is a forum for dialogue on topics that do not concern the continent of Asia only. It is also a meeting where Africa shall be represented".

China has expressed a strong will to enhance multilevel cooperation with Africa. That is in accordance with Algeria's development strategy, Bensalah said.