President Hu Jintao met with Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almaz
Atambayev in Bishkek on Wednesday. Both sides pledged to make
further efforts to promote trade and economic cooperation.
Hu hailed the fast development of Sino-Kyrgyz relations since
the two countries established diplomatic ties 15 years ago, and
lauded the frequent exchanges of visits between the two countries
and the pragmatic cooperation between the two sides in various
fields, saying they enhanced mutual political trust and yielded
significant and tangible benefits for the two peoples.
Both countries have also supported each other in international
and regional affairs and contributed to regional peace, stability
and prosperity, Hu added.
On Sino-Kyrgyz cooperation, Hu praised its achievement in a wide
range of fields such as trade and economy, transport, energy,
mineral exploration, telecommunication and agriculture, saying
bilateral trade volumes achieved several record highs in a row and
a string of large-scale cooperation projects have been set into
operation one after another. Bilateral cooperation has broad
prospects for development.
The president hoped that both countries would continuously
strive to create a favorable environment for bilateral cooperation,
regulate trade order, protect the legitimate rights of enterprises,
balance trade and push trade and economic cooperation to a new
level to further benefit the two peoples.
For his part, Atambayev said the Kyrgyz-Chinese friendship has a
long history, and the Kyrgyz government and people treasure the
friendship with the Chinese people and appreciate China's
support.
He went on to say that China's steady and fast development has
brought opportunities and benefit for its neighbors including
Kyrgyzstan, and his country is keen to expand trade and economic
cooperation with China.
The prime minister hoped both sides would further enhance
cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, infrastructure
construction, energy and natural resources.
Hu arrived in the capital of Kyrgyzstan Tuesday for a two-day
visit, his first state visit to the Central Asian country. He will
also attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit slated for
Thursday.
Official figures show trade volume between China and Kyrgyzstan
reached US$2.26 billion last year, up 128.6 percent from the
previous year.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2007)
