French firms urged to seize opportunities from China's development

President Xi Jinping said on Monday that entrepreneurs in France are welcome to participate in China's modernization efforts, and to seize opportunities arising from China's development as the country mulls significant moves to further deepen reform across various sectors.

Xi made the remarks while attending the closing ceremony of the sixth meeting of the China-France Business Council together with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Theatre Marigny in Paris.

Xi told delegates to the meeting that China is working to steadily expand institutional opening-up, ease market access and shorten the negative list for foreign investment. This will help provide a broader market and more win-win cooperation opportunities for countries including France, he said.

Since China and France established diplomatic ties 60 years ago, the two countries have developed a closely-intertwined relationship between their economies, with bilateral trade increasing 800-fold to reach $78.9 billion last year.