Before flying to Beijing, deputy Swedish Prime Minister Maud
Olofsson thought long and hard about a novel gift for her Chinese
counterpart Wu Yi.
Yesterday, Olofsson presented a pair of porcelain teacups, often
used as state gifts by the Chinese government.
"The chinaware has symbolized the active role Chinese
enterprises have already played in our daily life," Olofsson told
China Daily.
Leading a delegation to the two-day ministerial meeting to
promote investment among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in
Asia and Europe, Olofsson said she aimed even higher.
She said China's pursuit of balanced sustainable development had
created tremendous opportunities for businesses in her country.
China and Sweden signed agreements on trade and environmental
protection in July when President Hu Jintao visited Sweden.
Olofsson, who yesterday had a closed-door discussion with Chen
Deming, vice-minister in charge of energy with the National
Development and Reform Commission, said Sweden can guarantee smooth
technology transfers to help solve China's bid to fight climate
change and protect the environment.
She said Swedish SMEs can help provide cutting-edge solutions
for transportation energy, sewage treatment and renewable energy
technologies to China.
China is Sweden's largest trading partner in Asia, with
bilateral trade worth $6.7 billion in 2006, an 18 percent increase
from the previous year.
Yoshitaka Shindo, senior vice-minister of economy, trade and
industry of Japan, yesterday also joined Olofsson and other senior
Asian and European countries, expressing hopes to strengthen
business cooperation between China and Japan.
"We are striving for a stable economy and foreign investors are
equally welcomed," Shindo said.
Wu Yi said such businesses have been a key engine of China's
economic development, creating many job opportunities.
However hurdles remain in a number of areas including market
access, financing, human resources and management techniques, which
Wu said the government was trying taking action to address.
Official statistics show there are currently about 42 million
SMEs in China, accounting for about 99 percent of all
enterprises.
(China Daily October 31, 2007)
