Last April, the presidents Hu Jintao and Nicolas Sarkozy have had a fruitful meeting with the G20 summit in London, putting the Sino-French relations over the rail of a healthy development. Recently, they met in New York, reaffirming their commitment to the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and French. To realize this convergence of views, to echo the call of the business communities of both countries and strengthen economic cooperation and bilateral trade, a delegation from the Ministry of Commerce of China and a "mission of promoting trade and investment "consists of 290 Chinese entrepreneurs from more than 140 companies, travel these days in France.
Despite the challenges of all kinds, economic cooperation and Sino-French trade has always grown at a steady rate.In 2008, the volume of our trade reached a record 38.9 billion dollars, an annual increase of 16%. Today, more than 2 000 French companies are operating in China, their combined sales amount to 25 billion dollars per year, equivalent to twice the amount of French exports to China. Our two countries have conducted fruitful cooperation in various sectors such as energy, aeronautics and aerospace, transportation, etc.. The France is the fourth largest European trading partner of China; it the first partner of France in Asia.
Despite the crisis, our companies have succeeded in finding new business opportunities. Of the first ten months of the year, bilateral trade volume reached 27.75 billion dollars.French exports to China have registered a decrease of 11.9% better performance than that of the foreign trade of China and Sino-European trade, which shows the opening of our recovery plan for French exports. More than 140 companies with French capital have been created in China during this same period, averaging one new company every two days.
The path the world economy of early recovery to a new growth cycle will be long and tortuous. The Chinese government, putting priority on expanding domestic demand, has developed a comprehensive plan. The results are there and the target of 8% growth for 2009 will be realized.
China has also sent a dozen missions to promote trade and investment to over 30 countries and made its contribution to the global economic recovery.The assertion that the crisis will be following the global economic imbalance due to large surpluses in Asian countries is without foundation. The imbalance between developed countries and developing deserves much more attention. Alas, this n?oth?orie world economic imbalance is in the process of furthering trade protectionism, threatening the economic recovery. The seventh meeting of trade ministers of WTO will take place in a few days, during which will be assessed progress in the negotiations of the Doha Round. The short term success of this cycle is essential to curb trade protectionism. I also make three proposals on bilateral Sino-French. First, increase exchanges between our companies.Recently, we welcomed the visit to China by Ms Christine Lagarde, who took with her famous French companies. And in early December, the third edition of the business convention "China Europa will be held to Le Havre. Second, turn challenges into opportunities, especially in emerging sectors such as the green economy.
Our two countries should deepen cooperation in areas such as new energy, environmental protection, transportation, aeronautics and aerospace, focusing on certain projects. At the same time, China is experiencing strong demand in services sectors such as finance, logistics, tourism, creative industry, software development. It will welcome French companies in its market.Thirdly, provide more facilities to increase the cross-investment, French and Chinese in China in France.
China and France are linked by a history of friendship. In the early twentieth century, many young Chinese have gone to France to study, including Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping became the founding of new China. General de Gaulle made France the first major Western country to establish diplomatic relations with new China. Today it is for us to consolidate the traditional friendship between China and France.
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