China for cooperation in infra projects

Economic and trade links underpin the recent improvement in bilateral relations between India and China, and the two countries should go for a regional trade agreement to remove barriers and expand the scope of trade, said Chinese ambassador to India Zhang Yan.

He was speaking at a seminar on 60 years of India-China relations, organised by Gitam School of International Business here on Friday.

Over the last decade, trade between the two countries expanded from $ 2.9 billion in 2000 to $ 51.7 billion in 2008, while two-way investments grew ten-fold, Yan said.

This year, bilateral trade touched $45 billion in the first nine months, and is set to cross the $60 billion target. Co-operation in infrastructure projects would be a win-win proposition for the two sides, he added.

 

Exchanges in the fields of education, culture, media were also growing rapidly, with 2,100 Chinese students present in India and 9,000 Indian students studying in China, Yan said. His visit to Hyderabad was part of the six-month-long China festival in India, coinciding with a similar India festival in China.

Noting that China was still a developing country with a per capita GDP of $4,000 and 150 million people below the ($1-a-day) poverty line, he listed employment, resource constraints, and environmental issues as hurdles facing the development of the country.