Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-06-30
China's premier, Li Keqiang, said Monday that China is considering to kick start a China-EU investment platform to support Europe's economic revival.
Li Keqiang gives a press conference at the EU-China Summit in Brussels, June 30. (Photo/CNS) |
China's premier, Li Keqiang, said Monday that China is considering to kick start a China-EU investment platform to support Europe's economic revival.
Addressing
the opening ceremony of an European Union(EU)-China business summit, the
visiting Chinese premier said his country is willing to interface with the
European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), a €315 billion (US$350 billion)
investment plan initiated by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude
Juncker for resuscitating Europe's economy and in particular building large
infrastructure.
Seeing the
China-EU relationship as one of the most important, stable and constructive
relationships in the world, Li proposed to combine China's comparative
advantages in production capacity and equipment manufacturing with the advanced
technology of European economies.
He called
on the two sides to join hands in exploring third-party markets with
cooperation in priority areas such as equipment manufacturing.
China and
the EU should carry out more advanced financial cooperation in a bid to meet
the demand of industrial investments, said Li.
China, he
added, will expand its purchase of bonds issued by the European Investment Bank
(EIB) and improve the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII)
system.
In
addition, Li encouraged bigger roles of other investment and financing
arrangements in the revitalization of the European economy, including the
China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Representatives of
the 57 prospective founding countries of the AIIB signed Monday in Beijing an
agreement that outlines the framework and management structure for the
multilateral financial institution.
Under the
initiatives of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk
Road, a Silk Road Fund has been set up by China for improving infrastructure
connectivity between Asia and Europe.
The fund,
said Li, would be used for cooperating with Europe in high-tech development,
infrastructure construction and financial services.
The latest
European investment plan in the coming three years aims to, as explained by the
EIB, revive investment in strategic projects around Europe to ensure that money
reaches the real economy.
The premier
also urged the two sides to further liberalize trade and investment and
properly handle trade frictions, voicing his confidence of bilateral trade
exceeding US$1 trillion by 2020.
In response
to the Greek debt issue, Li said in a meeting with European Parliament
president Martin Schulz that China, as a firm supporter of the European
integration process, is always a responsible long-term holder of European bonds
and expects an adequate solution to the Greek debt issue.
Expansive
monetary policies are not quite enough for stimulating the sluggish economy,
the Chinese premier said, encouraging both China and the EU to adopt structural
reforms and enhance international production capacity cooperation so as to
revitalize the real economy.
Noting that
people-to-people exchanges have become an important pillar of the China-EU
cooperation, Li urged the two sides to give full play to the high-level
dialogue mechanism and make the China-EU year of intercultural dialogue a
success.
Describing
China as a strong and reliable partner of the EU, Juncker said the two sides should
build up a stronger partnership of mutual benefit in face of the current
international financial crises and other global challenges.
The EU is
willing to strengthen cooperation with China in infrastructure building and
inter-connectivity, he said, adding that it welcomes more Chinese companies to
invest in Europe.
Li arrived
in Brussels Sunday for the 17th China-EU leaders' meeting. During his visit,
China and the EU issued a document to outline their future cooperation
priorities and a statement on climate change, and signed several cooperation
deals on regional policies, intellectual property rights protection, customs
and technological innovation.
The EU has
been China's largest trading partner for 11 years while China has been the EU's
second largest trading partner for 12 years. Two-way trade exceeded US$600
billion in 2014.
After the
Brussels trip, Li traveled to Paris later Monday for an official visit to
France.
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