Economic, trade ties cornerstone of Sino-Japanese relationship: former Chinese vice premier

Economic and trade ties are the cornerstone for the Sino-Japanese relationship and should be promoted on mutual trust, said Zeng Peiyan, China's former vice premier, during a meeting here on Friday.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the first China-Japan entrepreneurs and former senior officials' dialogue in Tokyo, Zeng said that China's future transformation and Japan's economic revival need each other's support, adding that the two sides should promote good--neighborly relations and cooperation on the basis of the four political documents and in the spirit of taking history as a mirror and facing up to the future.

Zeng, together with 53 Chinese business leaders from all sectors, former senior officials and renowned scholars and 62 Japanese counterparts led by former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda took part in the dialogue organized by China Center for International Economic Exchanges and Japan Business Federation.

Fukuda said during the dialogue which aimed at providing communication platform for the industrial and commercial circles of the two countries that carrying out mutually beneficial cooperation is not only good for self-development, but also for promoting bilateral relations.

Fukuda emphasized that with both countries facing the subject of strengthening industrial competitiveness and at the critical moment of exploring new cooperation model, the two sides should seek common development and enhance pragmatic cooperation so as to bring tangible benefits to the two peoples.

The two sides also issued a joint statement for the two governments after the dialogue. The statement proposed that the two countries should reach high-level free trade agreement, increase financial cooperation, make good use of the business opportunities created by the framework of the Group of Twenty (G20) and promote infrastructure construction cooperation. Enditem