Expressing his satisfaction over the development of bilateral relations in the past decade, President Jiang Zemin told his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma, that China is ready to enhance the mutually beneficial co-operation. In particular Jiang referred to the direct business links between the two, greater investment, economic and technological co-operation and the strengthening of co-operation in the high-tech sector, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Kuchma, who is in China for a four-day visit, responded by saying that co-operation in the high-tech sector is important to trade ties and economic co-operation.

He said the Ukraine is willing to further expand co-operation with China in the fields of human resources, science and technology, aeronautics and astronautics, said the spokeswoman.

Chinese official statistics indicate that bilateral trade between China and the Ukraine reached US$939 million in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 43.9 per cent.

Recently both countries have turned their attention towards co-operation in the area of high-tech. In a joint statement issued yesterday, Jiang and Kuchma welcomed the advent of the Sino-Ukrainian high-tech park in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province, and the joint research centres and promised to jointly push for their further development.

The message of enlargement in bilateral trade and co-operation was also expressed by President Kuchma at a Chinese-Ukrainian business meeting yesterday, during which he expressed his confidence that prospects for this will be good.

Zhong Min, vice-president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the two nations complemented each other in a number of aspects. Examples he cited were the advantages the Ukraine enjoys in machinery, aviation, chemical and energy industries and the competitive edge China has in information technology, the manufacture of household appliances and light industry.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2002)