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China inks trade deals with Swiss companies
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-27 08:15
"This trade and investment promotion delegation to Europe is a clear indication of China's opposition to protectionism and its readiness to work together with Europe in tiding over the crisis," he added.
Highlighting China and Switzerland are important economic and trade partners to each other, Chen said the two economies are highly complementary. China is highly competitive in labor-intensive products, such as garments, jewelry, footwear and containers, offering budget choice to Swiss consumers, while Switzerland boasts a distinct competitive edge in watches, medicines, measuring instruments and precision machinery. In 2008, bilateral trade between China and Switzerland reached $11.25 billion, increasing 19.2 percent despite the economic downturn. China is now Switzerland's second largest trading partner in Asia. Leuthard said that the visit by the Chinese delegation sent a strong signal that China and Switzerland remain committed to open markets and against protectionism. She said the agreements between Swiss and Chinese companies are "good news to our businesses." "They signed contracts which will safeguard jobs and strengthen the cooperation between Swiss and Chinese companies in different fields in our economy," she said.
Earlier today, Leuthard and Chen signed a memorandum on the intensification of technical cooperation in the field of environmental technology. "Switzerland and China will cooperate more strongly to ensure that economic growth can be shaped in a more sustainable and environmentally-sound manner," the Swiss government said. To this end, a joint working group is to be established to examine the potential for cooperation in the areas of technology transfer, energy efficiency, renewable energies and the efficient use of resources. The group will submit proposals on the shape of this cooperation. Switzerland is the second stop of the Chinese business delegation's European tour. On Wednesday, they signed 37 procurement deals worth about 11 billion euros ($14 billion) with local firms in Germany. In an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday, Chen expected purchase deals with Switzerland would be modest compared with Germany due to the gap in the two countries' economic scales. The delegation will arrive in Madrid, Spain later Thursday and then London, the last stop. Chen said the deals to be signed there could be a more than in Switzerland.
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