China says will build trust, expand cooperation

Beijing, March 20 :

China is ready to work with India to consolidate mutual trust and expand cooperation in energy, railway, information and telecommunication, and high technology sectors.

Prime Minister Li Keqiang conveyed this at a meeting Tuesday with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was here for the third China-India Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).

The one-day dialogue was co-chaired by Ahluwalia and head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission Xu Shaoshi.

Li also proposed that the two neighbours jointly promote the building of the Bangladesh-India-China-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor, and push forward regional integration.

He said both China and India faced the common task of stepping up economic transformation, improving people’s livelihood while protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.

The two countries could “combine China’s technology and cost advantage in high-speed rail and energy sectors with India’s market demand,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying.

India is seeking Chinese assistance on track improvement to raise speed of trains. Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar was part of the Indian delegation at the talks.

At the SED, the two sides signed memorandums and pacts on IT, energy and sustainable urbanisation.

Ahluwalia said more Chinese companies should invest in India and pledged to provide them with support.

He also held talks with officials of the state-owned China Development Bank, which finances infrastructure projects all over the world.

This year marks the “Year of Friendly Exchanges” between the two countries.

Ahluwalia said India would strengthen cooperation in areas like industrial parks, railway, energy and urbanization.

Yang Xueshan, China’s vice-minister for industry and information technology, said China is willing to encourage domestic companies to invest in Indian industrial parks to produce personal computers, Internet equipments, cell phones and televisions, said The China Daily.

(IANS)