Germany, China to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation

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Germany, China to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation

By Li Xiang (People's Daily Online) 16:55, November 19, 2013

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Germany-China relations will further deepen and their trade will flourish, said Michael Clauss, German ambassador to China, in an interview with People’s Daily Online on Monday.

From 150 billion euros to 200 billion euros

According to the Ambassador, Germany will further support China’s economic growth, as the two economies complement each other greatly.

Mr. Clauss said: ”We are very interested in supporting China’s economic growth. We know that the total trade volume between the two countries is very high, which has reached 150 billion euros. Our goal is to take it further to 200 billion euros."

In addition to the economic exchanges, Mr. Clauss particularly pointed out that there are other aspects such as cultural exchanges that need to be focused on in the future.

EU-China summit to boost relationship

The upcoming EU-China summit could be very inspiring as it will provide a general blue print for EU-China ties in the next few years. The EU is one of the most important partners of China in trade and investment, and its status has the potential to be further reinforced, he said.

The GDP of the EU is 16 trillion euros, accounting for 23 percent of the world economy. “Now we see that Europe and the EU have gradually got out of the shadow of crisis, thanks to the measures we took. In addition, the EU as a separate economy has regained competitiveness. Now some of the latest economic forecasts show that the EU will resume growth in the next year, and the growth trend will continue by 2015,” he said.

As to the expectation for this summit, Mr. Clauss said he hopes the two sides can achieve a win-win situation. During the summit, some of the problematic issues, such as market access, intellectual protection mechanisms, will be discussed. Additionally, the both sides will soon start negotiations on EU-China investment agreement.

Germany edition of People’s Daily on the way

Mr. Clauss showed high expectation to the Germany edition of People’s Daily Online which is being planned. He believes it will serve as an eligible platform for enhancing understanding between the two peoples.