| Speech by Assistant Minister QIU Hong at the launching ceremony of Sino-Norway FTA Negotiation |
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| Tuesday,October 07,2008 Posted: 23:12 BJT(12 GMT) |
| From:MOfcom Article type:Original |
18 September, 2008 in Oslo, Norway
Honorable Minister Sylvia BRUSTAD
Honorable State Secretary Rikke LIND
Honorable Ambassador Haakon HJELDE
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
It is my great pleasure to join you here in Oslo for the Launching Ceremony of the China-Norway FTA Negotiation. First of all, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce of the Chinese Government, my warmest congratulations on the official launching of the FTA Negotiation. I also would like to take this opportunity to give my heartfelt thanks to those who have long-standing devoted and contributed to China-Norway relations over the years.
China and Norway established diplomatic relations in 1954. China values highly the development of friendly and cooperative relations with Norway. Over the past 50 years, the two countries have enjoyed deepening political, economic, cultural and technological exchanges. Recent years in particular have witnessed our even closer engagement, as evidenced by frequent exchange of high-level visits, wide-ranging bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, culture, tourism, environment, fishery and marine shipping. In 2006, the China-Norway Chamber of Commerce was established in Norway. In 2007, the Norwegian Government published a “China Strategy” paper, which set forth its objectives and priorities for developing relations with China. In July this year, Norway opened its Consulate General in Guangzhou. These are all tangible milestones in the development of our bilateral relations.
Norway is an important trading partner for China in the Nordic region. According to Chinese customs statistics, the bilateral trade volume totaled 3.8 billion US Dollars in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 29%. The figure for the first 7 months of this year had already reached 2.7 billion US Dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 22%. We note with great pleasure that, while China’s exports of textile, apparel and footwear are popular among people of Norway, Norwegian exports of salmon, fertilizer and crude oil are also well received among Chinese consumers. This testifies to the mutual complementarity between our two economies. Furthermore, Norway is an important source of FDI for China. By the end of June 2008, Norwegian investments in China had totaled 316 million US Dollars, covering such areas as shipping, electronics, mechanics, communication and chemical engineering. These investments have laid a solid foundation for Sino-Norwegian bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
On March 26, last year , Chinese Premier WEN Jiabao and the visiting Norwegian Prime Minister STOLTENBERG reached a consensus on initiating the China-Norway FTA process. A Joint Feasibility Study on the FTA was then conducted by Chinese and Norwegian officials and experts. After six months of insightful study and analysis, both sides arrived at a positive finding that China and Norway are economically complementary to each other and that an envisaged bilateral FTA will benefit the people of both countries.
Today, we gather here to jointly kick off the bilateral FTA Negotiation, with its first meeting to take place right after this ceremony. By this our bilateral trade and economic relations will be injected with new vitality. We hope, and we believe, that a future China-Norway FTA will not only deliver true benefits for people of the two countries, but also add to more prosperous bilateral economic relations.
To conclude, I wish the FTA Negotiation every success and China-Norway relations an even brighter future.
Thank you all.
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Bilateral Visits
