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China, EU to ink more than 5 agreements on cooperation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-19 16:13

There will be more than five agreements signed in the areas of economic, research and climate change cooperation at the upcoming European Union (EU)-China Summit, said Vitezslav Grepl, Czech ambassador to China.

In a written interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Grepl said that one of the agreements will be on science and research cooperation or the establishment of a joint energy center. He did not specify the details of others.

The annual EU-China Summit, a high-level political consultative mechanism, is to be held on May 20 in Prague, the Czech Republic, which is holding the European Union presidency.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will travel to Prague for the 11th EU-China Summit.

The ambassador told Xinhua that leaders will mainly talk about further EU-China cooperation in overcoming the global financial crisis.

The crisis calls for concerted action at both the European and the international level, Grepl noted, adding that the EU has taken a series of bold measures to restore confidence, stability and sustainability in the financial markets and is interested in further consultations with China aimed at coordinating common approaches to solve the difficulties and making recommendations to improve the international financial system.

Grepl said, China and the EU can together achieve a win-win result in the mutual trade exchange through market openness, liberal trade policy, fair competition and granting of the equal access to opportunities for operators from both sides. Further support to investment cooperation will be also an important engine for reducing the bilateral trade imbalance.

"I am convinced that this point will be also on the agenda of the Prague summit," said Grepl.

The EU is now China's largest trading partner, while China is the second largest of the EU. Trade volume between them grew to $425.58 billion in 2008, an increase of 19.5 percent over the previous year said China's customs.

Likewise, the EU and China also share the view that the international financial institutions should be given a bigger role in monitoring economic risks and that the emerging and developing economies should have more say in these institutions as well, said Grepl.

"I expect them to approve at the highest level the results of the recent second round of the high-level economic and trade dialogue."

The high-level economic and trade dialogue between the EU and China, which was held in Brussels from May 7 to 8, covered trade, investment and small and medium-sized companies, among of others. It was regarded as an important preparatory event for the economic and trade part of the upcoming EU-China summit.

According to Grepl, the leaders will also discuss and endorse the political direction of EU-China cooperation as well as global efforts to cope with climate change - be it energy efficiency, clean energy technologies, environmental protection, the pilot project of near-zero carbon emissions zone and so on.

"These fields are also excellent opportunities to create new jobs and thus maintain social stability and further economic progress," said Grepl.

He said, "Given the important role both the EU and China play in international organizations and in efforts to solve regional crises and face global challenges, the results and perspectives of our mutual cooperation towards peaceful solution of many of them will for sure be discussed as well."