China, Japan seek closer economic cooperation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-07 13:40

TOKYO - Visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming met in Tokyo on Sunday with his Japanese counterpart Toshihiro Nikai on various economic and trade issues and reached broad consensus on future cooperation.

During their talks, the two ministers exchanged views on such issues as cooperation on the protection of intellectual property, the promotion of the WTO Doha Round negotiation and the prevention of trade protectionism.

Chen said that with joint efforts from both sides, a favorable pattern with all-dimentional, in-depth and mutually beneficial and complementary features has been developed in China-Japan economic and trade cooperation.

Faced with the grave challenges posed by the global financial crisis, the two countries need to made joint efforts to turn the " crisis" into an "opportunity", prevent the spread of trade protectionism, advance the WTO Doha Round negotiation and make positive contributions to Asia's economic stability and the world economic recovery, said Chen.

Nikai, for his part, voiced his hope that the two sides will take concrete steps in a concerted effort to create a favorable commercial environment for enterprises of both countries to conduct cooperation in areas such as trade and investment.

He said that Japan and China also need to further boost multilateral as well as regional economic cooperation to jointly tackle the financial crisis.

Before their meeting, the two sides signed a memorandum on exchanges and cooperation on the protection of intellectual property between Chinese Commerce Ministry and Japanese Ministry of Economy, trade and industry.

Chen is a key member of the Chinese delegation headed by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, who arrived here Saturday to attend the second China-Japan high-level economic dialogue.

The dialogue, co-chaired by Wang and Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, opened Sunday in the wake of the ministerial meeting.

The dialogue mechanism, first held in Beijing in December 2007, was jointly launched by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during Wen's trip to Japan in April 2007.