Top political adviser's visit promotes friendship

(Xinhua) Updated: 2012-04-26 09:30

Promoting pragmatic cooperation for mutual benefit

Jia's visit was mainly designed to promote pragmatic cooperation between China and the three nations.

During his visit, Jia said China was the second largest trading partner of New Zealand and Thailand, and its trade with Brunei had enjoyed strong growth.

Noting that China and the three countries were highly complementary in their economies, Jia suggested they should seek common interests with a view to each other's national development strategy and strive to consolidate their traditional cooperation spheres.

Jia also briefed the hosting leaders on China's economic and social development, stressing China would unleash huge investment and consumption demand during the implementation of its 12th five-year development plan, bringing more business opportunities for enterprises of the three countries and the Asian-Pacific region at large.

Jia and his hosts also attended the signing ceremonies of cooperative documents covering the areas of investment and clean energy.

In New Zealand, Jia said the two sides should continue to make full use of their free trade agreement and currency swap deal and deepen practical cooperation on economy and trade, agriculture, clean energy and disaster prevention and reduction, in a bid to achieve the goal of reaching 20 billion New Zealand dollars ($16.37 billion) in bilateral trade by 2015 as soon as possible.

In Brunei, Jia showed his support for Brunei's strategy of economic diversification, saying the two sides should make the best use of the bilateral consultation mechanism of economy and trade and give full play to the free trade policy between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in order to promote fast growth in bilateral trade.

In Thailand, Jia said the two countries should fully implement the five-year plan for bilateral trade and economic cooperation, further enlarge trade and two-way investment and enhance cooperation in the key fields of high-speed rail, water conservation, clean energy and education.

Jia also attended a symposium held by representatives from Chinese-invested enterprises in Thailand, giving detailed opinions on trade and economic undertakings and encouraging Chinese-invested enterprises to expand cooperation abroad.

Leaders of the three countries expressed their willingness to work with the Chinese side to intensify practical cooperation, saying the rapid development of China offered great opportunities to regional countries.

They hoped China could expand investment in the three countries and welcomed the participation of Chinese enterprises in economic and social development programs of the three countries.

Expanding cultural and people-to-people exchanges

During Jia's stay in the three countries, he made extensive contacts with people from various walks of life.

During his visit in New Zealand, Jia visited New Zealand's third largest city, Christchurch, which was hit by a major earthquake last February. Jia visited the quake-hit areas and expressed condolences to the victims and their families on behalf of the Chinese government and people.

Jia said Christchurch was the hometown of Rewi Alley, an old friend of the Chinese people who had made positive contributions to mutual understanding and friendship.

Before he left Christchurch, the last stop of his New Zealand tour, Jia visited Synlait Milk Ltd., a China-New Zealand joint venture. He also visited Crowe's Pasture and talked with local dairy farmers.

In Thailand, Jia had talks with Buddhists while visiting the Ssangyong Temple in Chieng Mai and encouraged Buddhist exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

He also attended a luncheon hosted by the Brunei-China Friendship Association and a welcoming banquet held by overseas Chinese in Thailand. The overseas Chinese were greatly inspired by Jia's visit and vowed to promote friendly cooperation between China and the three countries.