Top finance officials from China and the US met in Saint
Petersburg yesterday to discuss bilateral financial and economic
cooperation and agreed to boost dialogue in this field.
During a meeting with US Secretary of the Treasury John Snow,
Finance Minister Jin Renqing said cooperation between the
Chinese Finance Ministry and the US Treasury had been fruitful in
recent years.
Finance officials will meet at a session of the China-US joint
economic committee later this year to discuss financial and
economic cooperation and financial reforms, Jin said, adding that
the discussion should contribute to the further growth of China-US
relations, as was agreed by the top leaders of the two countries
during President Hu Jintao's US visit in April.
Jin is here to attend a dialogue today between finance ministers
of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations and those
of six other countries -- China, India, Brazil, Australia, South
Korea and Nigeria.
Snow, for his part, said the economic relationship between the
US and China was the most important economic relationship in the
world and the smooth development of the ties benefited the people
of both countries.
China was playing an increasingly key role in international
affairs and any discussion between the G8 or G7 and other countries
would be incomplete without China's participation, Snow said.
Earlier in the day, Jin also discussed financial cooperation
with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and expressed his hope
that China and Russia could enhance dialogue on microeconomic
policy through a finance ministers' discussion mechanism to boost
cooperation between the two countries.
G8 finance ministers gathered yesterday in this northern Russian
city for a two-day meeting that is expected to focus on discussion
on global economic growth, the impact of oil prices on growth, and
energy security.
(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2006)