Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday said China and Japan would
co-launch a high-level economic dialogue mechanism during his
upcoming visit to Japan.
Wen made the remarks in a joint interview with journalists
from16 Japanese news media, which came ahead of his Japan tour
slated for April 11-13, the first to Japan by a Chinese premier in
seven years.
"During the visit to Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and I will
co-chair a meeting to start up the high-level economic dialogue
mechanism, and determine the respective heads of the two countries
responsible for the mechanism as well as the time, venue and agenda
for its first meeting," said Wen.
Wen said the dialogue mechanism is a key measure for building up
strategic economic relations between China and Japan and will
complement various other cooperative mechanisms that have already
been established between the two countries.
Wen said China and Japan should identify the targets, approaches
and key orientations for bilateral economic and trade cooperation
through the dialogue, adding that the two should particularly
strengthen collaboration in fields of energy conservation,
environmental protection, hi-tech, small and medium sized
enterprises, finance and information.
China will adopt an open attitude to economic and trade
cooperation with Japan as long as such cooperation is based on
mutual benefit and equality, said Wen.
He stated China and Japan should make full use of multilateral
mechanisms such as the World Trade Organization, Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation, 10 plus 3 (10 ASEAN countries plus China,
Japan and the Republic of Korea) and East Asia Summit, to intensify
consultation and cooperation in addressing global energy and
climate change challenges and promoting establishment of a just and
reasonable multilateral trade system.
The interview took place in Zhongnanhai in downtown Beijing
where China's top leaders work and live.
During the interview, Wen highlighted key figures in developing
bilateral economic and trade relations.
China-Japan trade volume had increased by nearly 200 times from
US$1.1 billion in 1972 when the two countries normalized their
relations to US$207.4 billion in 2006.
Statistics showed that Japan has now invested in more than 30
thousand projects in China, with a total investment volume of US$58
billion. People-to-people exchanges between the two sides reached
US$5 million in 2006.
"Strengthening China-Japan economic and trade cooperation is in
the interests of both countries," Wen stressed.
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2007)
