China and India should work together to double their bilateral
trade volume to US$10 billion by 2005, Chinese Minister of Commerce
Lu Fuyuan said in Beijing Wednesday during a meeting with Indian
Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley.
As
the two most populous and largest developing countries, Lu said,
China and India have great potential to expand their trade and
economic cooperation.
China and India signed a number of agreements of cooperation this
week as Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was visiting
China.
"Those documents will greatly push forward bilateral trade and
economic cooperation between our countries," Lu said. "We should,
in accordance with the consensus reached between Indian prime
minister and Chinese premier, make plans on the development of
trade and economic cooperation."
Lu
said any proposal from India would have the active support of China
so long as it was conducive to the expansion of trade and economic
cooperation.
Two-way trade between China and India reached US$4.95 billion last
year, up 37.6 percent from a year ago. From January to May this
year, bilateral trade grew 70 percent to US$2.9 billion, with China
importing US$1.68 billion of Indian goods and exporting US$1.22
billion of goods to India.
Jaitley proposed the joint economic group between India and China
should hold meetings as soon as possible to explore ways of
boosting trade and cooperation.
The Indian minister said India and China, as two important
developing members of the World Trade Organization, shared many
similarities and could cooperate well on many issues.
He
suggested the two sides exchange views frequently and make joint
efforts to safeguard the interests of developing countries.
Lu
agreed with Jaitley, and said the two countries shared many common
interests in the new round of talks of the WTO. He said the two
should support each other and work for the interests of the
developing countries.
(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2003)