Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming met with Cable, Secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of UK and his party in Beijing on Nov.8, and co-chaired the 9th session of Sino-UK Trade and Economic Joint Committee.

Minister Chen stated that in recent years, Sino-UK comprehensive strategic partnership underwent in-depth development, high-level contacts were frequent, bilateral cooperation mechanism was perfected, and achievements were made in various fields. The UK remained China's 3rd largest trading partner and main source of foreign direct investment as well as overseas investment destination in the EU. And China has become the second largest trading partner of UK outside the EU. Bilateral trade and investment was in temporary troubles owing to the financial crisis. Fortunately, it rebounded relatively fast in 2010: Sino-UK trade value increased 25.8% year on year in the first 9 months of 2010. Particularly, the UK export to China rose by 43.3% year on year, much higher than that of China's export to UK. Furthermore, the two-way investment got back to growth: the contract value of the UK newly signed investment projects in China increased 50.2% year on year, with an increase of 3.7% in actual investment; the non-financial direct investment of Chinese enterprises in the UK reached US$110 million. The two economies were highly complementary and the cooperation potential was great. Chen hoped that the two sides could better promote the development of Sino-UK trade and economic relations in joint efforts.

Chen also put forward six suggestions on further developing Sino-UK trade and economic cooperation: firstly, further boost bilateral trade, particularly, cooperation in service trade; secondly, actively boost two-way investment and enhance regional cooperation; thirdly, further strengthen the mutual cooperation in innovation and hi-tech technology; fourthly, strengthen the cooperation among medium-sized and small enterprises; fifthly, continue boosting the sustainable city cooperation; sixthly, discuss the feasibility of Sino-UK cooperation in a third country.

Mr. Cable said that the trade and economic relations of the two countries developed smoothly in recent years and the mutual cooperation was constantly deepening. The current environment of economic recovery was beneficial for further development of bilateral trade and economic relations. He hoped that the two countries could have active dialogue in virtue of great cooperation prospect. Moreover, British Prime Minister Cameron visited China with a large delegation, which fully demonstrated that the new British government attached great importance to UK–China relations. Cable wished this visit and UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue a complete success.

The two sides discussed Doha Round Negotiations and believed that the U.S. should make efforts in a bid to cope with the issues of the negotiations and other countries in the world should take their due responsibility so as to boost the success of Doha Round Negotiations. Besides, they exchanged views on other issues of common concern.

After the session, the two sides signed the Cooperation Initiative MOU on Sustainable City by the Ministry of Commerce of People's Republic of China and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and UK Trade & Investment of UK, and Joint Communique of the 9th Session of Sino-UK Trade and Economic Joint Committee.