Before flying to Beijing, deputy Swedish Prime Minister Maud Olofsson thought long and hard about a novel gift for her Chinese counterpart Wu Yi.

 

Yesterday, Olofsson presented a pair of porcelain teacups, often used as state gifts by the Chinese government.

 

"The chinaware has symbolized the active role Chinese enterprises have already played in our daily life," Olofsson told China Daily.

 

Leading a delegation to the two-day ministerial meeting to promote investment among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asia and Europe, Olofsson said she aimed even higher.

 

She said China's pursuit of balanced sustainable development had created tremendous opportunities for businesses in her country.

 

China and Sweden signed agreements on trade and environmental protection in July when President Hu Jintao visited Sweden.

 

Olofsson, who yesterday had a closed-door discussion with Chen Deming, vice-minister in charge of energy with the National Development and Reform Commission, said Sweden can guarantee smooth technology transfers to help solve China's bid to fight climate change and protect the environment.

 

She said Swedish SMEs can help provide cutting-edge solutions for transportation energy, sewage treatment and renewable energy technologies to China.

 

China is Sweden's largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade worth $6.7 billion in 2006, an 18 percent increase from the previous year.

 

Yoshitaka Shindo, senior vice-minister of economy, trade and industry of Japan, yesterday also joined Olofsson and other senior Asian and European countries, expressing hopes to strengthen business cooperation between China and Japan.

 

"We are striving for a stable economy and foreign investors are equally welcomed," Shindo said.

 

Wu Yi said such businesses have been a key engine of China's economic development, creating many job opportunities.

 

However hurdles remain in a number of areas including market access, financing, human resources and management techniques, which Wu said the government was trying taking action to address.

 

Official statistics show there are currently about 42 million SMEs in China, accounting for about 99 percent of all enterprises.

 

(China Daily October 31, 2007)