Scores of officials and businessmen from the midwestern United States and China's central and western regions gathered in Beijing on September 29 to explore ways to strengthen economic cooperation.

This is the first time the regions met to discuss ways to expand trade and investment and more conferences may follow, according to Adlai E. Stevenson, chairman of board of the Midwest US-China Association (MWCA).

Core members of the MWCA comprise 10 states in the heartland of the United States, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The central and western parts of China consists of a number of provinces and municipalities that are underdeveloped compared with the coastal region of China.

Midwestern US and the central and western parts of China are similar because they both are agricultural regions and abound in natural resources.

"These provinces (of western and central China) are somewhat similar with Midwestern states, and this creates basis for more economic cooperation between the two regions," said Stevenson.

Chinese experts said although the two regions are similar in some spheres, they are economically complementary and have a great potential to expand cooperation.

"The biggest challenge for the farming industry in central and western China is that it still uses little new technology and machines, but technology-intensiveness and high utilization of

machines in farming is the advantages of the Midwest states," said Yu Ping, vice-president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Stevenson agreed with Yu. He said such cooperation is economically advantageous and has a political side.

As representatives, Governor of Missouri Bob Holden and Deputy Governor of China's Shaanxi Province Zhao Dequan briefed participants about their willingness of cooperation.

"I believe that the economic growth of Midwest America needs China's market while China's western region for its economic advancement needs to learn from the experience of the Midwest and expand cooperation with US companies," said Zhao Dequan in a speech.

Among areas of cooperation, Chinese and American participants of the gathering listed service, manufacturing and new technology for energy conservation in addition to agriculture.

China-US trade reached 126.3 billion US dollars last year, up 30 percent from a year ago. In the first six months of 2004, two-way trade grew another 36.5 percent to 76.9 billion US dollars.

Established three months ago, the MWCA aims to coordinate efforts to draw investment from China and Chinese companies. Its members are expanding from governments to local development associations, businesses and universities.

Source: Xinhua