BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang, during a recent visit to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, reached comprehensive agreements with the three countries' leaders on further enhancing bilateral economic and trade relations, Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun said Thursday.
Li's official visit to the three countries from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 has greatly pushed forward bilateral economic and trade cooperation with the three sides, Yi said in an article published Thursday on the People's Daily newspaper.
PROMOTING BILATERAL ECONOMIC, TRADE TIES
During the visit, Li discussed with the leaders of the three countries means of enhancing bilateral cooperation, fighting the current global financial crisis, rejecting trade and investment protectionism, and maintaining healthy and stable development of economic and trade ties against the backdrop of the global recession, said Yi.
The visit is of far-reaching significance as it has ushered in a new phrase of bilateral economic and trade cooperation with the three countries, he added.
China has always attached great importance to boosting bilateral economic and trade ties with Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, China's three important economic and trade partners in the south Pacific region.
China signed framework agreements on trade and economic cooperation with Australia in October 2003, and New Zealand in May2004, which guide bilateral cooperation in various fields including economy and trade, investment, technology, agriculture, education and tourism.
New Zealand is the first developed country to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with China and both sides began to implement the FTA on Oct. 1, 2008. The free trade talks between China and Australia were launched in late 2004.
China also has had fruitful cooperation with Papua New Guinea within the framework of the China-Pacific island countries economic development forum.
According to statistics, bilateral trade between China and Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea respectively reached 59.66 billion U.S. dollars, 4.4 billion dollars and 860 million dollars in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 36.1 percent, 18.9 percent and 26 percent.
China has become the biggest trade partner of Australia and the second biggest partner of New Zealand.
Mutual investment and technology cooperation between China and the three countries have also witnessed great progress in recent years.
Australia's total investment in China reached 6.08 billion dollars as of September. The Australian government said that in the past 18 months, it approved 110 projects invested in Australia by Chinese companies with a total worth of some 40 billion Australian dollars (about 36.3 billion dollars)
Meanwhile, the Ramu Nico project, a major joint mining project between China and Papua New Guinea, is one of the biggest nickel and cobalt mines operated by Chinese companies. It also is China's biggest investment project in the South Pacific island nations.
The project is mainly owned by China's MCC-JJJ Mining development company, while Australian investors, the Papua New Guinea government and local landowners also have a stake in the joint venture. It is expected to start operation earlier next year.
PROMOTING TRADE, INVESTMENT LIBERALIZATION
Yi said Li's visit also aimed to promote trade and investment liberalization in order to achieve mutual benefit and a win-win situation.
During Li's visit to Australia, the two sides candidly exchanged opinions on the negotiations of a China-Australia free trade agreement, two-way investment and anti-protectionism. They agreed that a comprehensive, high-quality and balanced free trade agreement should be achieved.
The Australian side showed willingness to be a long-term and reliable resources and energy provider for China and pledged to adopt an open and nondiscriminatory policy towards investment from China.
Both sides agreed to handle bilateral ties from a strategic perspective and push economic and trade cooperation to a new high.
During a luncheon with Australian business leaders, Li expounded China's efforts to combat protectionism and China's willingness to make joint efforts with other countries to tackle the global financial crisis.
During his meetings with New Zealand leaders, Li reviewed bilateral cooperation since a free trade agreement was implemented in 2008 and expressed satisfaction with the progress. The agreement was widely praised in New Zealand for its important role in fighting the financial crisis.
SETTING LONG-TERM GOAL FOR COOPERATION
The Chinese vice premier and leaders of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have placed high hopes on further enhancing bilateral trade and economic cooperation. They pledged to give play to each other's advantage to upgrade cooperation, Yi said.
Li and the three countries' leaders agreed to deepen trade and economic cooperation in three aspects.
First, they proposed to reinforce trade on advantageous products and expand the scale of trade. They put an emphasis on seeking new growth points and optimizing the export structure in such areas of green products, emission reduction technology and high-tech.
Second, Li said China welcomed enterprises from Australia and New Zealand to engage in China's regional development which will facilitate their investment in China. Well-developed Chinese enterprises are also encouraged to invest and cooperate with their counterparts in the three countries in a bid to achieve common development.
Third, they also agreed to promote broad exchanges on trade at various levels and encourage communication between sister provinces and cities and business groups so as to upgrade high-tech cooperation and continuously inject energy into the cooperation.
In addition, Li promised that China would within its capacity continue offering aid and support to the Papua New Guinean side. Both sides agreed to actively and safely expand bilateral economic and technology cooperation through thoughtful planning.
During his visit to the three Asia-Pacific nations, the Chinese vice premier expounded on different occasions China's measures against the ongoing international financial crisis as well stance and principles on this issue, including its call for enhanced world cooperation and opposition against all forms of trade and investment protectionism.
Regarding the cooperation between China and the three countries, as well as other South Pacific nations, Yi briefly summarized Li's words as follows:
China will commit itself to enriching the content of cooperation and seeking new channels and new ways to push cooperation to a higher level.
