China and France signed billions of dollars' worth of trade
contracts during a visit to Paris by Chinese Vice Premier Zeng
Peiyan, cementing ties that have grown noticeably closer in
recent months.
Airbus, the European aircraft maker based in the French city of
Toulouse, announced it had inked a two-billion-dollar deal to
supply 20 A330-300 planes to the airline China Eastern.
The aerospace subsidiary of the French telecommunications group
Alcatel said it had sold a television satellite to the company
ChinaSat to be operational in time for the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing. Industry sources said that contract was worth
around 120 million dollars.
Those and another seven contracts involving technical
cooperation in the construction of nuclear energy plants,
helicopters, planes and trains were signed in the presence of Zeng
Peiyan and French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
"If each time we meet we sign as many agreements with so many
jobs behind them as these agreements, I believe our cooperation
with China will be very fruitful. It already is," PM Raffarin
said.
Zeng, who is vice premier in charge of economy, met later Friday
with President Jacques Chirac, who warmly welcomed the new
contracts and agreements. "They demonstrate that our companies are
engaged in a true partnership process," he said.
Chirac's office confirmed that he would make a trip to China in
October -- his third state visit to the country in seven years --
at the start of the Year of France in China, a series of events
celebrating French culture and heritage.
The Chinese official's visit, and the high protocol greeting he
was getting, underlined the relationship that is blossoming between
China and France.
Chirac has pulled out all the stops to woo what has become the
world's biggest emerging market, home to 1.2 billion people and
boasting a red-hot economy that has expanded by nearly 10 percent
this year, AFP reported.
When Chinese President Hu Jintao made a four-day trip to France
in January, he was treated to a privileged reception that included
lighting the Eiffel Tower red for the occasion and an invitation to
address parliament. Since then, the two countries have forged
closer links in the areas of politics, culture and -- most
importantly -- trade.
In March, the two countries' navies carried out the biggest
joint exercises China has ever held with a foreign country, near
the northeastern Chinese port city of Qingdao.
France has declared 2004 the Year of China, making the Asian
country the guest of honour at bookfairs, film festivals, and other
cultural events -- and the close collaboration will continue
throughout the Year of France in China, from October until July
2005.
Later this year, France is to lend China 50 paintings worth 500
million euros by artists including Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste
Renoir for what will be the largest ever exhibition of
impressionist art in Asia.
The upshot has been some sweet opportunities for French
businesses looking to grab pieces of the Chinese market from US and
other competitors.
The French government said in March it expected China would
choose French company Alstom to build a high-speed rail link
between Beijing and Shanghai, a 12-billion-dollar project also
being sought by Japanese and German groups.
Carrefour, a French supermarket chain that ranks among the
world's biggest, has also been aggressively rolling out new stores
in China, in fierce competition with Wal-Mart of the United States
and Metro of Germany.
Other sectors where French firms have been actively chasing
opportunities are in aviation, mobile telephones and auto
manufacturing.
With business ties growing stronger, France appears keen to
further the political tandem developing with China. Both countries,
which have permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council,
have shown they are not ready to bow to US domination, AFP
reported.
In a sign of the importance Chirac gives to the relationship
with China, he returned from a Group of Eight summit in the United
States to see the Chinese vice-premier Zeng Peiyan, making no time
to pay his last respects to the late US president Ronald Reagan, as
other foreign leaders did.
(China Daily June 13, 2004)
