Home SME Cooperation Forum Detail

SME Cooperation Forum

Gao Hucheng Met with California Governor Edmond Brown

Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng met with California Governor Edmund Brown in Beijing on April 10. The two parties exchanged views on expanding trade and investment cooperation between China and California and establishing the China Provinces and US California joint Working Group on Trade and Investment Cooperation.

Mr. Gao welcomed Mr. Brown to head the trade delegation to visit China, and expressed his appreciation for Mr. Brown’s comments on Sino-US relations from the historical and cultural point of view. Mr. Gao said that China and US, as the largest developing country and the largest developed country in the world, are the two largest economies in the globe, and common interests and interdependency of the two countries have been deepened. California holds an important position in Sino-US trade and investment cooperation, with bilateral trade accounting for a quarter of total Sino-US trade, and California’s imports from China account for one-third of that of the US. He believes that Mr. Brown's visit to China will achieve positive results, and will further promote mutually beneficial cooperation between China and California.

Mr. Gao said that Mr. Brown had proposed to establish a joint working group on trade and investment cooperation during Mr. Xi Jinping’s visit to US as the Chinese Vice President in February 2012, and with joint efforts of both sides for over a year, the memorandum of understanding were signed by six China provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong and Chongqing and California to establish the Joint Working Group, which is a path breaking work, and will set a new benchmark for economic and trade cooperation between China provinces and other US States.

Mr. Brown said that California and China enjoyed a long history of exchanges despite the long distance. It is necessary to maintain sustainability of the friendship and cooperation between China and US, and the visit is aimed to step up cooperation on the basis of previous cooperation. Each State of the US has its own characteristics, California’s total economic output could rank 9th in the globe, and has advanced technologies in such areas as medicines, new energy, bio-technology and internet technology, with strong innovation capability. In recent years, contacts between California and China have become ever closer, and many Chinese enterprises are investing in California. California will continue to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with China provinces, so as to make a positive contribution to the development of Sino-US economic and trade relations.

Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Chao was present at the meeting.