By IANS,
Beijing : The maiden India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) held here has achieved positive results and will help expand mutual trust between the two countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said.
“The meeting achieved positive results,” Xinhua quoted Wen as saying.
“During the meeting, we discussed our economic situations, macroeconomic policies, and policies and cooperation in areas such as investment, infrastructure construction, high technology, energy conservation and environmental protection,” he said during his meeting with the Indian delegation here Monday after the talks.
Wen hoped the two countries will continue to make efforts to give the dialogue a greater role in promoting bilateral relations and cooperation.
“The goal of the dialogue is to further strengthen our mutual trust under the current situation and to expand our strategic partnership of cooperation,” Wen said.
The Chinese premier stressed that China and India, which are good neighbours and two of the world’s largest developing countries, face many common opportunities and challenges. He added that maintaining the sound and stable development of bilateral relations is of great importance to the two countries, the region and the world as a whole.
The two countries should enhance communication and coordination at all levels and in all areas, expand cooperation, take each other’s concerns into consideration and steadily pursue a means of reciprocity and common development, Wen said.
In their first strategic economic dialogue held in the Chinese capital, India and China Monday had agreed to deepen bilateral investments, further open up markets and share developmental experiences.
The two sides have also decided to enhance cooperation in infrastructure, specially in the railway sector, as India sought Chinese expertise and technology in building high-speed rail networks.
The dialogue was chaired by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Indian Planning Commission and Zhang Ping, director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Wen also lauded India’s capabilities in IT and pharmaceuticals and talked about creating an investor-friendly environment.
India has been pressing China to open its markets to Indian IT, pharmaceuticals and engineering products.
India’s trade with China is expected to touch $70 billion this year. The two sides are hoping to scale it up to $100 billion by 2015.
The mechanism of strategic economic dialogue was unveiled during Wen’s visit to India in December 2010 amid growing concerns in India about the widening trade deficit.