China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will take five concrete measures to promote trade and investment cooperation between the six member countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) economic cooperation mechanism, a senior ministry official said in Kunming on Sunday. Addressing the opening ceremony of a Forum on Business Participation in the Cooperation of GMS, hosted by the MOC in this capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, An Min, vice minister of commerce, said his ministry would encourage more Chinese companies to invest and set up branches in the other five GMS member countries, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ministry will provide information and technological support for the investors and safeguard their rights and interests overseas, he pledged. China will step up its efforts to push forward the building of a China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) free trade zone (FTZ), and will increase imports from its GMS neighbors, An said.

According to MOC statistics, trade volume between China and the other five GMS countries in 2004 reached 25.82 billion US dollars, double the figure for 2002. China's imports from the other GMS countries surged to 14.27 billion dollars from 6.88 billion dollars in 2002, at an annual average growth of 44 percent.

An said that the MOC would continue to provide funds for the infrastructure construction of the sub-region and facilitate trade and investment across the region.

"China will also continue to provide opportunities of exchange and cooperation for the sub-regional business circle through holding major trade fairs in its southern and southwestern cities such as Guangzhou, Kunming and Nanning," An pledged.

The vice minister predicted that trade relations in the sub-region will become closer and the GMS member countries will further open their markets to each other as both the building of the China-ASEAN FTZ and the sub-regional economic cooperation are gaining momentum.

The GMS economic cooperation program was initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1992, involving six countries sharing the Lancang-Mekong River.

Source: Xinhua