China buying mission heads to Europe

BEIJING – China will send companies on a buying mission to Europe in February that will target mainly technology and equipment, the commerce ministry said Monday.

"The purchase mission is planned to be sent out in late February to the four countries of Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Britain," Yao Jian, spokesman of the ministry, told reporters at a briefing.

He said the value of the purchases would be decided by companies and industry associations, adding products to be bought included technologies, equipment, and key goods and services the four countries would like to sell.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao first announced the plan to send "procurement teams" to buy goods and services from Europe during his visit to Britain early this month.

"Via such an initiative under the current tightening economic environment, we want to open up the markets to each other, deepen our cooperation to deal with the challenges together and contribute to the revival of the global economy," Yao said.

"Certainly the purchase of EU equipment is very important for the restructuring of the Chinese economy as well – the EU has a lot of advanced environment protection technologies and equipment," he said.

Bilateral trade between China and the European Union reached USD 425.6 billion (EUR 333.7 billion, CHF 497.5 billion) in 2008, accounting for 16.6 percent of China’s overall trade, official data showed.

Yao did not say which companies would go to Europe or how much they would spend.

[AFP / Expatica]