US$1.7b deals dominate Hu's German agenda
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-11 05:47

BERLIN: Lucrative commercial deals dominated the agenda on the first day of President Hu Jintao's first state visit to Germany yesterday.

The eight deals worth US$1.7 billion were scheduled to be signed after talks between Hu and German President Horst Koehler, who officially welcomed his Chinese counterpart with full military honours at the historic Charlottenburg Palace.

The largest deal would be an agreement with German electronics giant Siemens to produce 60 high-speed ICE trains valued at nearly US$1.5 billion for China.

Other agreements would cover environmental technology, power generation, banking, telecommunications, sanitation, culture and construction of a friendship hospital.

These agreements are set to deepen trade links between China and Germany, which is China's largest trade partner in the European Union, and spur economic co-operation.

Bilateral trade amounted to US$54.2 billion last year, accounting for one third of China-EU trade, and is estimated to hit US$130 billion by 2010.

At the end of last year, Germany's direct investment in China had reached US$9.9 billion.

During their talks, Hu on a four-day visit and Koehler agreed to raise Sino-German relations to a new level through maintaining exchanges of high-level visits and more fruitful co-operation.

Hu hailed Germany as an important and reliable partner in China's course to build a well-off society.

He added that the extensive interests shared by the two countries in a complicated, globalized and multi-polar world have laid a solid political foundation for developing bilateral ties.