Swiss president hopes his coming China visit boosts cooperation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Swiss president hopes his coming China visit boosts cooperation

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin says his coming China visit will strengthen political, scientific and economic cooperation with China.

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Swiss President Pascal Couchepin says his coming China visit will strengthen political, scientific and economic cooperation with China.

In a recent interview with Chinese correspondents, Couchepin said he visited China in 1999 as head of federal department of economic affairs.

He said his coming six-day China visit, starting on Thursday, is a state visit as president of the Swiss Confederation.

Couchepin said that during his visit he will express admirationto the new Chinese leadership on China's rapid development.

As the official in charge of scientific research in the Swiss government, he would sign a cooperative agreement with China on pharmaceutics and bio-scientific research during his visit.

He hoped economic and trade relations between China and Switzerland could be enhanced, with cooperation among entrepreneurs and business people in the two countries.

Couchepin said Switzerland was one of the earliest western countries to recognize the People's Republic of China, and the twocountries had maintained long-term good relations, and were becoming major partners in economic and trade areas.

He pointed out that China has become the 12th largest trade partner of Switzerland in the world, and the second largest in Asia.

Although the trade volume of Switzerland to China was not very big, only a little bit more than 1 percent of the Swiss total trade volume, he was confident of the trade expansion.

He predicted that the trade volume to China was expected to rise to 3 percent of Switzerland's total trade volume within 10 years, and reach 6 percent in 20 years.

Couchepin said leaders of the 15 most influential Swiss companies, such as Nestle, ABB, UBS, and Novartis would visit China with him and explore the investment opportunities in China.

On Switzerland's cooperation with China within the United Nations and other international agencies, Couchepin said his country had joined the United Nations less than two years ago and was willing to build constructive cooperative relations with China,one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

He said Switzerland and China had had very good cooperation over China's negotiations in joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Couchepin recalled his negotiations with China's former trade minister, Shi Guangsheng, over a final agreement, saying the two sides soon reached consensus in an atmosphere of frankness and mutual understanding.

On China's RMB (yuan) appreciation, he said the global economicdevelopment had proved that it was not a wise policy for a countryto stimulate its economy through manipulation of currency value.

If the RMB appreciated slightly, there would be no big help forthe world economy, he said.

However, if the RMB appreciated largely, China, as the locomotive of the world economy, would suffer a lot. He added thatthe world economy would be affected adversely.

Couchepin said he is looking forward to meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing.

Besides visiting Beijing and Shanghai, the Swiss president said he is planning to visit Gansu Province in western China to examine the possibility of exploring business opportunities in the western part of China.

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