China's economic development is good both for the Chinese people and for the world, the European Investment Bank President Philippe Maystadt has told Xinhua.

"China kept its growth in recent years and its economic development is impressive," Maystadt, an economic expert who was Belgium's minister of finance for ten years, said in a recent email.

China's economic development is "a good thing not only for the Chinese people whose living standard has been improved gradually, but also for the world economy in which China has become one of the most important partners in global trade and finance," he said.

He also suggested that the appreciation of Chinese RMB should be done gradually, rather than abruptly.

"I would only like to underline the risk of brutal adjustments. If the value of a currency needs adjustments, it is preferable that they are done very gradually," he said.

Commenting on China's stock market, Maystadt was cautious about the recent volatility, but confident of the future.

It would be "dangerous" to make any prediction in the stock market, he said.

"It was seen recently that the Shanghai Stock Exchange plunged nearly nine percent in one day," he said, "but it seems to me that the Chinese stock market will be on rise in the long term, and the proportion of foreign capital would increase little by little."

Maystadt had two suggestions for those foreign companies who want to enter the Chinese market.

One is to adopt a long-term strategy for investment in China. The other is to find a Chinese partner from the very beginning.

Cooperating with Chinese companies "will avoid many mistakes," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2007)