The economic delegation, the largest in Germany's history, includes 47 leaders of such prominent companies as Siemens, BASF and Bayer.

The delegation brought with it 26 trade and investment contracts in the fields of information technology, electronics technology, biological technology, energy and environmental protection.

BASF, for example, plans to invest US$2 billion to set up a manufacturing plant in Shanghai.

And Bayer is to contribute US$3.1 billion to construct a chemical industry base.

Siemens alone is expected to sign three investment contracts with China, including an electricity transmission project from Guizhou Province in Southwest China to South China's Guangdong Province.

German media reported that the delegation also plans to sell 50 A320-model Airbus planes to China with a total worth of US$1.2 billion.

Schroeder's visit to China, his third in three years, is expected to further strengthen Sino-German bilateral trade ties.

Germany is now China's largest trade partner in Europe.

Bilateral trade reached a record-high US$19.7 billion last year, according to Chinese customs statistics.

China exported US$7 billion to Germany in the first nine months of this year and imported US$10.1 billion, up 2.2 per cent and 34 per cent year-on-year respectively.

German statistics indicate the country imported US$8.2 billion worth of goods from China in the first half of this year, up 10.5 per cent from the same period last year.

The imports made up 3.2 per cent of German's total in the first half year and made China the 10th largest exporter to the country.

China signed 858 technology transfer contracts with Germany last year valued at US$2.8 billion.

Germany ranks second in terms of the value of technology transfer to China, trailing only the United States.

In the first half of this year, China approved 135 German investment projects with contracted foreign capital of US$685.5 million and actual investment of US$510.8 million, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation.

Until the end of last year, the number of German projects in the form of foreign direct investment had reached 2,421, with contracted capital of US$12.24 billion and actual input of US$5.85 billion.

(China Daily November 1, 2001)