Israel PM eyes 'perfect partnership' with China

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said here on Wednesday that he looks forward to a "perfect partnership" between Israel and China.

"I believe that Israel can be a perfect partner to China," Netanyahu told Xinhua on the third day of his official visit to China. He arrived in China's financial hub of Shanghai on Monday and flew to Beijing on Wednesday morning.

"China is a global economic power and Israel is a global center of R&D,and I think we can complement each other to secure the market of tomorrow," said the prime minister.

"This is a perfect partnership," he added.

This was Netanyahu's second visit to China as prime minister. He made the first visit in May 1998.

"China is performing particularly well and I see the tremendous development, with great admiration and great interest," he said.

According to Netanyahu, the future will belong to countries that can make conceptual products, or "products of the mind," and the Jewish and Chinese people have great minds.

"If we share capabilities, we will go well beyond into a very bright future," he added.

China and Israel established diplomatic ties in 1992 and their bilateral trade has surged to nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars from 50 million dollars recorded 21 years ago.

"But for me it could double and double again very quickly because of the potential for cooperation," Netanyahu said.

He believes China and Israel can cooperate with each other in many fields, including energy, the environment, food, water, healthcare and education.

"There are many experts [in Israel] who know how to reclaim sewage water and make it useful," said the Israeli prime minister, explaining that they could help China on water use.

"Future economic success in the 21st century -- which is a knowledge-based century -- will be dependent on sustainable growth," he said, "We have a lot of technology and we'd like to share with our Chinese friends."

Netanyahu said the most valuable resources for economic growth in this century will be "the ability not only to produce conceptual products, but also to integrate them."

Many disciplines have to be integrated, for example, IT with bio-technology, he said.

"Israel is a hub. It's a small country without big industries, but with a lot of great minds dealing with all these things," he told Xinhua.

Besides bilateral economic cooperation, Netanyahu said China and Israel could also cooperate in third-party countries, "for example in Africa."

"We can cooperate to bring our capacities to the marketplace, and to the benefit of a lot of people in the world," he added.