Chinese and EU officials signed an agreement on cooperation in government procurement Wednesday, under which the two sides will establish a regular dialogue on government procurement.

Under the agreement, Chinese and EU finance officials will meet once every year for a dialogue on matters concerning government procurement, including legislation, implementation of government procurement rules, practice and cooperation between governments and private businesses.

The agreement was signed by Zhang Hongli, assistant minister of finance of China, and Alexander Schaub, director general of the European Internal Market and Services of the European Commission.

Zhang said government procurement was introduced only late last century and China can learn quite a lot from Europe on ways to regulate and promote government procurement.

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance described the agreement as the first concrete measure taken by the two sides following first finance dialogue between China and EU held last February in Brussels.

The second Sino-EU Finance Dialogue is scheduled to be held next March in Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2005)