BIZCHINA> Center
Air France connects two nations
By Lu Haoting (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-14 10:43

"More foreign investment in China means more travelers coming to China. France is a strong economic partner of China, so we could capitalize on the traffic from France as well as Western Europe to China," Legre says.

France is China's fourth largest trading partner in the European Union. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached $33.67 billion in 2007, up 33.7 percent year-on-year. The number of French-invested projects in China reached 3,539 by the end of 2007, representing a total investment volume of $8.27 billion, according to figures from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. France is China's third largest source of foreign investment in the European Union.

China has also witnessed impressive growth in the tourism industry. Tourism revenues currently account for 6.1 percent of China's total GDP as the country's inbound, outbound and domestic tourism all exhibit stunning growth.

"China is becoming a really popular destination among Westerners, especially Europeans. More and more people in France want to come to China. Going to Beijing, to many French people, now seems as logical as going to the US. It is quite a normal thing now to spend a weekend in Beijing as we did in New York earlier," Legre says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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