Chinese, Bahrain Trade Ministers Agree to Explore Trade PotentialsChinese trade minister and Bahrain minister of commerce agreed on November 20 that the two sides should make joint efforts to explore the potential in developing trade and economic cooperation between the two.Shi Guangsheng, minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of China, reached the consensus during a meeting with Ali Saleh Abdullah al-Saleh, minister of commerce of Bahrain. Shi said that as China and Bahrain have maintained "good political ties," trade and economic cooperation has grown quite smoothly over the past several years. Two-way trade volume reached US$70.68 million in 1999, up 24 percent from the previous year. Shi stressed that the trade volume is still small considering the overall foreign trade volume of each side. He suggests the two sides encourage cooperation between enterprises in various forms. Bilateral trade and cooperation in contracted labor service and civil engineering, in particular, should be a big growth area, Shi said. Currently, China mainly exports machinery, garments, textile products and frozen chickens to Bahrain, and imports rolled aluminum and refined oil from this Middle East country. The Bahrain minister said that Chinese companies could make use of Bahrain's favorable geographical position and conduct cooperation with Bahrain. The Bahrain side will support any Chinese invested-firms in Bahrain, he said. The Chinese minister thanked Bahrain for its long-term support towards China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and said China, Bahrain and other WTO members can work more closely within the WTO. The Bahrain minister arrived in Beijing Sunday. He will also visit Xi'an City in northwest China and Shanghai in east China. |
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