Chinese and Mexican commerce departments on Thursday in Xiamen signed an agreement on setting up a high-level workgroup to facilitate trade and investment.

The workgroup, composed of officials from both governments, is responsible for evaluating and analyzing trade and investment development situations, making proposals and exploring and seeking ways to enhance bilateral cooperation. The group will convene once per year.

Prior to the signing ceremony with Mexican Secretary of Economy Fernando Canales, Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said the establishment of the workgroup would help tackle the problems emerging from trade between China and Mexico.

China and Mexico enjoy extensive cooperation in trade and investment, said Bo, adding that the two countries should further promote trade cooperation in energy and mineral products.

Canales said trade between Mexico and China recorded rapid growth in the first five months of this year, with up 50 percent from the same period last year. The two countries should work together to develop a cooperative trade strategy, he said.

Despite differing views inside Mexico on whether to end textile quotas on Jan. 1, 2005, the Mexican government will keep its promises and make efforts to liberalize textile trade, Canales said.

Canales is here for the Eighth China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), which opened Wednesday in Xiamen, a coastal city of east China's Fujian province. More than 300 overseas delegations, as well as Chinese representatives, attended the four-day annual investment promotion activity.

While meeting with a Japan-China investment promotion agency delegation, Bo said the Chinese government greatly values trade cooperation with Japan, in a hope that the investment promotion agencies of the two countries could play vital roles in furthering trade and investment cooperation.

The Chinese minister also met with delegations from US-China Business Council, Hitachi, Ltd. as well an investment team consisting of six US companies.