Designed to promote business cooperation between small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the European Union and China,
the EU-China Partenariat 2002 opened Thursday in Beijing.
"The event is the largest business activity ever held in the
history of EU-China economic and trade cooperation," said Yu
Xiaosong, chairman of the China Council for Promoting International
Trade (CCPIT).
It
is part of the efforts to promote economic and trade relations
between the two sides, Yu said.
The Chinese Government and the European Commission are making a
concerted effort to resolve the damaging bilateral trade disputes
which erupted last January.
A
new round of negotiations to tackle the problem has been scheduled
for later this month. This was arranged during the visit by the
European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy to China in
mid-October.
It
is expected that the Partenariat will be pivotal in improving
bilateral relations.
The objective of the EU-China Partenariat is to forge long-term
business partnerships between Chinese and EU companies, by
providing a platform to meet and discuss concrete cooperation
projects.
"New trade and investment opportunities offered by China's entry
into the WTO last December will enable Chinese and European
companies to strengthen their links and enter into partnerships and
agreements in many sectors of the economy," said Hans-Friedrich
Beseler, special adviser to the European Commission.
He
said that the innovative and competitive nature of European
companies will make them ideal partners for their Chinese
counterparts pursuing opportunities and challenges brought by
China's WTO membership.
Jointly initiated by the European Commission and the Chinese
government and organized by the CCPIT, the event is the fourth of
its kind in the European Commission's Asia Partenariat series
supported by the Asia Investment Program.
A
total of 384 Chinese SMEs across the country will participate in
the two-day event and hold individual meetings with their
counterparts, 296 SMEs from the union's 15 members.
The trade fair comprises seven major sectors including food and
beverages, information technology, electrical machines and
appliances, engineering support, environmental protection,
machinery and equipment and metal products.
(China Daily November 8, 2002)