China's investment in U.S. to expand in future: Geithner

Xinhua, May 11, 2011

Chinese investments in the United States are going to expand in the future, said Secretary of Treasury Department Timothy Geithner Tuesday.

"I am very confident that if you look over the next several years, you're going to see Chinese investment in the United States continue to expand very, very rapidly," the secretary told a press conference after the two-day China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) concluded.

Geithner reiterated that the U.S. welcomes Chinese investment in the U.S. and stressed that it'll be all good for both China and the U.S.

"That's (the Chinese investments in the United States) driven by the desire of Chinese companies to have more access to U.S. technology and to try to expand their opportunities in this market. And, again, we welcome that,"said Geithner.

Both sides have reached multiple agreements in the economic areas in the past two days of the current round of China-U.S. S&ED, including promoting cooperation in investment and trade, boosting transformation of economic development pattern and cooperation in financial regulation and reform.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Geithner signed "U.S. China Comprehensive Framework for Promoting Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth & Economic Cooperation" earlier on Tuesday, providing more solid foundations for further cooperation between China and the U.S. in economic areas in the future.

The two-day S&ED is co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Geithner.

The dialogue mechanism was upgraded from the former Strategic Dialogue and biennial Strategic Economic Dialogue, which were initiated by the two countries in 2005 and 2006, respectively.