More than 150 French enterprises are participating in the five-day exhibition in the fields of industrial equipment, medical technology, financial services, agricultural foodstuffs and other new areas.

World-famous French corporations, such as Airbus, Alcatel and Alstom, were among the enterprises that brought their new technologies to Beijing.

Seventy per cent of participating enterprises are small in scale, which shows that the Chinese market is attractive to all French enterprises, said Xavier Even, commissioner general of CFME-ACTIME.

"With China's accession to the World Trade Organization, there will be more room for economic cooperation between the two countries," said Francois Huwart, the French minister of Foreign Trade. He attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

"France will accelerate bilateral trade in the service and distribution sectors and encourage more French enterprises -- especially mid-and small-scale ones -- to set up branches in China," he said.

France ranks third in investing in China and fourth in trading with the country in the European Union.

By the end of May, French enterprises had signed 1,830 direct investment projects, with contracted sum of US$6.1 billion and an actual investment of US$4.9 billion.

Meanwhile, France is China's major collaborator in the subject of technology transfer. Already, China has imported 1,549 technological projects from France, valued at US$10 billion.

"We wish French enterprises will take this opportunity to propagandize their image and seek more cooperation with Chinese enterprises," said Zhang Xiang, vice-minister of China's Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Paris-based trade promotion organization CFME-ACTIME, the Economic & Financial Department of the French Embassy and the Beijing municipal government.

(China Daily November 21, 2001)