The 7th Session of a Joint Group on Economic, Trade, Science and Technology Cooperation Between Governments of China and India was held in New Delhi on March 16. Minister of Commerce of PRC Bo Xilai co-chaired the plenary meeting with Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister for Commerce and Industry of India. The two sides deeply and sincerely exchanged views on topics of implementation of the Five-Year Planning on China-India All-round Trade and Economic Cooperation, launching of border trade through Nathula, agreement of protection and promotion of bilateral investment, joint feasibility research of regional trading arrangements, India's recognizing of China's market economy status, China-India bilateral trade of mineral products and agricultural products, encouragement and facilitation of two-way investment, and cooperation in information industry, resources and infrastructure construction. Hao Peng, Vice President of Xizang Autonomous Region took part in the meeting. Chinese delegation included representatives from relative departments of the Ministry of Commerce, NDRC, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Industry, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of PRC, China's Customs, and administrative departments of commerce in Xizang and Sichuan Province, China Iron and Steel Association and China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Metal and Chemical Products. Indian delegation was organized by departments of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Communications and information Technology Industry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.

Mr. Bo Xilai said that Chinese government always attached importance to the trade and economic cooperation with India. Since the previous session of the Joint Group, the bilateral trade and economic cooperation made an encouraging development, and amounted to US$18.7 billion in 2005, up by 38% on a year-on-year basis. Now, China became the third biggest trading partner of India, and on the other hand, India was the eleventh trading partner of China. As developing countries with the big population worldwide and the big new markets, China and India were strongly complementary to each other economically and the bilateral cooperation had a broad prospect. The two countries should further enhance cooperation of trade, investment and infrastructure construction to push forward the process of joint feasible research of regional trading arrangements between China and India.

Nath said that total population of China and India accounted for 40% of that worldwide. And economy of the two countries maintained increasing, China and India should actively develop the trade and economic relations with mutual benefits. In the past 5 years, the bilateral trade rose by a big margin with an annual growth rate of 44%, which completely indicated the economic complementarity of the two countries and huge potential of bilateral trade and economic cooperation. China would be the biggest trading partner of India in the near future according to the current increase rate. Two-way investment between China and India went up step by step and cooperation in project contracting also made new progress. The two sides should make efforts to push forward diversified goods trade in the coming days to increase import and export of high value-added products and keep sustainable development of bilateral trade. Meanwhile, Nath said that governments of the two countries should provide convenience to cooperation of enterprises.

The Two Ministers came to consensus on several important agreements in the talk, mainly including: confirming the working plan to implement the Five-year Plan for China-India All-round Trade and Economic Cooperation, initialed protection agreement on China-India investment promotion, agreeing to establish a working mechanism to discuss issue of India's recognizing the market economy status of China, launching the joint feasible research on China-India Regional Trading Arrangement, coming to a consensus on building up a joint working mechanism for trade of major commodities, on opening up border trade through Nathula as soon as possible, on maintain enhancing the bilateral cooperation in a new round of multi-lateral trade negotiation and on setting up a CEO forum for Chinese and Indian enterprises.

The Two Ministers came to consensus on several important agreements in the talk, mainly including: confirming the working plan to implement the Five-year Plan for China-India All-round Trade and Economic Cooperation, initiating protection agreement on China-India investment promotion, agreeing to establish a working mechanism to discuss issue of India's recognizing of the market economy status of China, launching the joint feasible research on China-India Regional Trading Arrangements, coming to consensus on building up a joint working mechanism for trade of major commodities, on opening up border trade through Nathula as soon as possible, on maintain enhancing the bilateral cooperation in a new round of multi-lateral trade negotiation and on setting up a CEO forum for Chinese and Indian enterprises.

After the meeting, Miniter Bo Xilai and Minister Nath signed the Minute of the 7th Session of China-India Joint Group on Economic, Trade, Science and Technology Cooperation, together attended China-India Business Forum and gave speeches. Mr. Bo Xilai said in his speech that both China and India were remarkable in the history of world economy, and would go forward in a channel with healthy and rapid development recently. The two countries had abundant commercial opportunities and a solid political, economic and cultural foundation to develop bilateral trade and economy. China and India should hand in hand in the new century and would play more important roles on the stage of world economy. On the other hand, business circle in the two countries should further tap the potential, promote better development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Minister Nath said in his speech that people of China and India had deep friendship, and the two countries should enhance cooperation in various fields and attached importance to the cooperation.

More than 130 entrepreneurs from China and India took part in the Forum. Chinese entrepreneurs mainly came from Dongfang Electric Corporation, Huawei, ZTE, Sinosteel, China Minmetals Corp., CMEC, CWE and Shanghai Electric Group Co.,Ltd. etc. Indian entrepreneurs mainly came from TATA, MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA, BHATI, JUBILANT, RTC and SRS