China and Myanmar have held their first meeting of the Joint Committee for Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation (JCETTC) in Yangon to promote their economic and trade relations and good-neighborly ties.

During the two-day meeting, which began on Monday, the two sides had a deep and practical exchange of views with regard to economic and trade cooperation and reached a wide range of consensus.

They agreed to focus future cooperation on agreements and memorandums of understanding signed during visits between leaders of the two countries and have more consultations over the continued development of their economic and trade ties.

The two sides expressed belief that through joint efforts of the two governments and business circles, the two countries' cooperation would record greater progress.

The meeting was jointly launched by Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce An Min, who leads a visiting economic and trade delegation, and Myanmar Minister of National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha.

The second meeting of China-Myanmar JCETTC will be held in China.

The China-Myanmar JCETTC was established under a MoU on promotion of trade, investment and economic cooperation signed during a visit to Myanmar by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi in March last year.

Bilateral economic and trade relations between China and Myanmar have maintained good development momentum in recent years.

According to official statistics from China, the two countries' bilateral trade, including the border trade, reached 1.145 billion US dollars in 2004, up 6.3 percent from 2003. Of the total, China's exports to Myanmar took 938 million dollars, while its imports from Myanmar represented 207 million.

The two countries target an increase of bilateral trade volume to 1.5 billion dollars by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Myanmar's official figures show that China's contracted investment in the country had amounted to 191 million US dollars in 25 projects as of the end of January this year.

Source: Xinhua