Competent Economic and Trade Authorities of China and Portugal to Establish Economic Mixed Commission Thursday,January 20,2005 Posted: 07:57 BJT(2357 GMT) On Jan. 13, Bo Xilai, Minister of Commerce, met with Portuguese Minister of Economic Activities and Labor Alvaro Barreto who accompanied the president Jorge Sampaio to visit China. Bo Xilai pointed out that in recent years, the bilateral trade developed rapidly, and amounted to US$800 million in 2004. Nevertheless, the developing space of bilateral trade was huge and China would endeavor to promote Sino-Portugal bilateral trade to develop at a higher speed. Barreto expressed that owning to the rapid development of economy in the past 10 years, Portugal made China a top-priority in trade and economic cooperation. Portuguese enterprises were of much interest in starting cooperation with China. The two countries signed Sino-Portugal Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement and set up Sino-Portugal Enterprises Committee, which would no doubt push development in Sino-Portugal trade and economic cooperation.　　 China and Portugal would establish Sino-Portugal Enterprises Committee under the framework of Sino-Portugal Economic Mixed Commission, aiming at developing bilateral economy and enterprise relations and enhancing the understanding of characters of markets and trade opportunities in the two nations. Principal of European Affairs Department of MOFCOM said that Portugal possessed advanced technology in automobile manufacture, mould, medicine, soft wood processing and wine brewage etc. and was experienced in tourism. China welcomed Portuguese enterprises to introduce advanced technology and high quality products to China, and meanwhile, encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Portugal. According to statistics of MOFCOM, bilateral trade in 1979 when the diplomatic relations were established was only US$200 thousand, and exceeded US$800 million in 2004, up by 4000 times. In the first 11 months of 2004, the bilateral trade between China and Portugal reached US$786 million, up by 48% on a year-on-year basis. Of which exports were US$525 million and imports US$261 million, up by 45% and 55% respectively. (Source: Network Center of MOFCOM)

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