"Consolidating economic and trade cooperation partnership between the two countries" is an important substance of French President Chirac's third visit to China. The talks between the reporter and the accompanying French Minister Delegate for Forign Trade - Fran?ois Loos, however, started from the topic of the Chinese and French cultural year. The Eiffel Tower clothed in Chinese red and a series of activities introducing Chinese ancient and modern culture left this senior economic official and a former engineer with a deep impression.

He said the French Cultural Year unveiled by President Chirac in Beijing gave rise to many expectations. "This will be conducive to the economic and trade development between the both sides, particularly between small and medium firms. Large companies of the two countries have established good cooperation, whilst mutual understanding between small and medium firms is not yet adequate. During the year-long French Cultural Year I hope to have 1,000 French small and medium companies visit China in delegations and in the meanwhile hold a series of activities".

When talking about the Sino-French economic and trade exchange many Chinese generally think of French fashionable dress, perfume, food and those tourist sceneries. Mr. Loos said as a matter of fact several major cooperation plans of symbolic significance are driving the economic relations between France and China. Fore example, the French industry is leading the world in three major fields. First is nuclear energy. We plan to jointly develop a new, more advanced nuclear reactor with China; second is high-speed train. We plan to jointly develop a new generation of trains that accommodate China's needs; the last is aviation. The R&D capability of the institutions of Airbus and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) is renowned worldwide. The new generation Airbus A380 can carry more than 600 passengers.

France is the second largest agricultural product exporter, second only to the US. Loos believes agriculture is truly a future cooperation field for France and China. In grape wine and other wine products the two countries have had a good cooperation. "Of course, there is much to do in produce processing. To facilitate exchange and cooperation our two countries should reduce obstacles in animal and plant quarantine.

The regular trade between small and medium companies is the basis of the Sino-French trade. However, the small and medium companies of the two countries still have questions to be solved such as impeditive information communication and cooperation channels and fields to be explored. Loos said: "France has launched a slew of measures to promote cooperation between small and medium companies of the two countries. We should apply ourselves to vigorously encourage this kind of cooperation in a variety of forms. Particularly we can rely on large companies, which have already had success experiences in this respect. There is an organization called Enterprise Partner Association in France, whose job it is to provide small and medium companies with large companies' experience to save them from going through roundabout courses. In March next year 200 French small and medium companies will visit China - an event jointly organized by this association and Carrefour".

When asked whether the two countries would carry out further cooperation on the issue of technological export Mr. Loos said: "Chinese brands are actually known overseas, particularly those electronic and information products. For example, TCL has signed an agreement with the French Thomson. There is also the Lenovo". "To become internationalized Chinese brands need to invest abroad. I invite Chinese companies to settle in France. They will be received warmly because French people and Chinese people have a lot in common".

This is an article carried on the 7th page of People's Daily on Oct. 12 and translated by People's Daily Online