Foreign and Military Affairs
China, Austria vow to heighten economic relations
By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-21 09:17
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Vienna yesterday reiterated its desire to build closer economic ties with Beijing, as it believes China's development has provided greater room for expanding bilateral trade cooperation since the on-set of the global economic crisis.
Though the whole world was affected by the economic crisis in various degrees, the China-Austria trade volume saw a stable increase last year, said visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer.
Fischer said he is happy with Austria-China relations and expressed optimism about future developments during a meeting in the Great Hall of the People with President Hu Jintao yesterday.
"Austria has attached great importance to the bilateral ties, and is looking forward to further cooperation in the field of aviation and technology," Fisher said.
Fischer, who first visited China in 1974, as science and technology minister, added that he had since visited China many times and had seen for himself the changes that had taken place and that he was interested in the pace and mode of development underway in the country.
Statistics show that bilateral trade between the two countries reached $3.5 billion from January until September last year and Wu Ken, Chinese ambassador to Austria attributed the figure to a strong mutual relationship between the two countries in terms of mutual economic and technological cooperation.
According to Ambassador Wu, technological cooperation is the focus of China-Austria trade cooperation. Austria is one of the European countries that has introduced important technology into China.
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Fischer's delegation to China also included more than 120 business people from various fields, a good-will gesture for closer business ties. The marketing leader of GE Energy's Austria-based Jenbacher Gas Engines, Michael Wagner, is one member of the trade delegation, who is looking for more business opportunities in China.
"We have rich experience and expertise in power generation through many types of greenhouse gases: Gases from the steel industry and others. We are very happy to provide our advanced technology to help China address their environmental challenge," he said.
Apart from Beijing, Fischer will also visit Shanghai. He will visit and inspect the Austrian Pavilion in the Expo Garden tomorrow.
Christoph Leitl, president of Austrian Federal Economic Chamber said the attendance of Shanghai Expo is important to the Austrian economic circle.
"During the economic downturn, the Shanghai Expo is the best platform for Austrian enterprise to present themselves to the world," he said.
