EU lawmaker says looking forward to more investment from China

A Portuguese member of the European Parliament said Wednesday that both her country and the European Union (EU) as a whole hope to attract more investment from China.

Claudia Monteiro de Aguiar, while inaugurating a forum on investment and business cooperation between the EU and China, said the bloc places great importance on trade relations with China.

Currently, investment in Europe is 15 percent below the pre-crisis level and Europe must solve this investment gap in order to recover from the crisis and strengthen its global competitiveness, the EU lawmaker noted.

In such a context, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, has launched the Investment Plan for Europe, an initiative to increase investment across the EU and boost long-term economic growth, she said.

She also highlighted Portugal's advantages in being a destination for foreign investment.

The country has carried out various reform measures in the past few years and its national economy is among the best-performing ones within the EU, she said.

Moreover, she said Portugal, though being in the corner of Europe, is a key transit point for transatlantic trade as "all future trade between the United States and Europe will pass through our country," she said.

"Portugal welcomes foreign direct investment and the Chinese one," she said.

The forum was co-sponsored by Diario de Todos (DDT), a Portugal-based newspaper, and the Association for Investment Promotion Europe-Asia (EAIP). It was the first stop of a worldwide forum tour organized by the EAIP. Endi