Premier: proposal for development of China-EU ties

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in an address delivered at the 15th China-European Union (EU) summit on Thursday, put forward a four-point proposal for the development of China-EU relations.

Wen said that the China-EU Summit has played a strategically leading role since the establishment of the two sides' comprehensive strategic partnership 10 years ago.

As the international financial crisis persists, China and the EU should strive to bolster confidence, work closely to meet challenges, and promote contact and coordination in a bid to safeguard their common interests in the future international setup.

In order to build a stronger comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, the Chinese premier outlined the following steps to take:

Firstly, China and the EU need to vigorously promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment and stand firm against protectionism.

Secondly, the two sides need to focus on new industries such as advanced manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biopharmacy, and information and telecommunications, and establish joint research and development centers, technology transfer centers and joint incubators.

In his third point, Wen called for the establishment of working mechanisms to promote bilateral cooperation in such sectors as transportation, electric power, and telecommunications.

Beijing encourages Chinese enterprises and financial institutions to engage in Europe's infrastructure construction and to set up a logistic network covering the whole Eurasia to meet the demands of ever-increasing trade and personnel exchanges between the two sides.

Fourthly, the two sides should promote reforms of the international financial system to achieve new progress in order to maintain global economic and financial stability.

China welcomes European enterprises to use the Chinese yuan in cross-border trade and investment and is willing to work with Europe to support establishing bank branches in both sides.

Wen also spoke highly of the strategic leading role of the mechanism for regular meetings between Chinese and EU leaders.

On the European debt problems, Wen said it is a matter concerning the interests of the world.

China will, as always, support the efforts by Europe in solving the debt problems and strengthen communications and cooperation with EU bodies, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, he said.

China hopes that the European side would further cement its consensus on reforms, implement relief measures and strike a balance between fiscal austerity and economic growth to inject strong impetus with a combination of means into Europe's economic recovery and sustainable growth.

The EU side said that with concerted efforts from both sides over the past 10 years, EU-China relations have witnessed comprehensive development with closer bilateral political relations and greater economic interdependence. Cooperation in various fields between the two sides have yielded fruitful results.

The EU said that the two sides should join hands to tackle the international financial crisis and the European debt crisis in a bid to safeguard mutual benefits.

The EU said that EU-China relations, which are built on the basis of mutual understanding, mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, enjoy strong momentum and broad prospects, adding that whatever challenges they encounter in the future, the interests of the EU and China will be closely tied together.

The EU side spoke highly of Wen's four-point proposal and expressed hopes of formulating a long-term cooperation plan as a strategic guide to lay the foundation for future development of their ties.

The EU is willing to deepen trade and investment cooperation with China, launch investment agreement negotiations, and properly settle differences through talks and negotiations.

The EU is also willing to strengthen infrastructure cooperation with China, intensify people-to-people exchanges and reinforce communications and coordination in international and regional affairs in order to deal with global challenges together.

The EU side is pushing forward reforms to solve the European debt crisis with its own efforts. The EU said that China's support and EU-China cooperation are of crucial importance to Europe's economic recovery and growth and stressed that it will strengthen communications and cooperation with China.

The two sides also exchanged views on the global economic situation, the Group of 20 and regional hot-spot issues.

The summit was co-hosted by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

After the meeting, leaders of both sides attended a signing ceremony of relevant cooperation documents and issued a joint press communique.

Wen also met with the mission of China to the European Union, the staff of the Chinese embassy in Belgium, representatives of Chinese institutions, and overseas Chinese and students.