The 2004 China-US Telecommunications Summit opened Thursday in Chicago with a view to further promote the exchange and cooperation in the telecommunication sector between the two countries.

The meeting, the first held in the United State, is co-hosted by the US Commerce Department and Chinese Ministry of Information Industry. Several workshops are to be held for the two side to exchange views and experience in developing the telecommunications.

Speaking in the opening ceremony of the two-day meeting, China's Vice Minister of Information Industry Jiang Yaoping said that the summit has played an active role in promoting the cooperation in the telecommunication sector between the Chinese and US

governments and companies in the two countries. He expressed his hope that the summit meeting, which has been proved to be a constructive system, will do more in furthering the relation between the two sides.

The minister-level summit meeting started in 1995 in China with a goal to push forward the relation and cooperation in the telecommunication sector between the two countries and then held two meetings in 1997 and 1999.