China and Thailand are likely to achieve the goal of boosting their annual two-way trade volume to 30 billion US dollars faster than expected, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said in Beijing Thursday.

Wu made the remark when meeting with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who is in Beijing to attend a road show of Thai securities companies.

In an earlier agreement, the governments of China and Thailand planned to boost their bilateral trade volume to 30 billion US dollars by 2010.

Since trade and investment between the two countries have had good momentum, the goal might be achieved faster than expected, Wu said.

Wu noted that Thailand attracts its largest amount of overseas investment from Chinese companies, and that Thai companies have also invested in a great number of projects in China.

She said the two countries have taken the lead in adopting a policy of zero-tariffs on trade of fruits and vegetables within the frame-work of the China-ASEAN free trade zone. The arrangement has added impetus to the progress of developing the free trade zone.

Thailand is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,the Philippines and Vietnam.

Wu said China and Thailand still share huge potential in expanding trade and economic cooperation. In order to push bilateral trade and economic cooperation to a higher level, she suggested that the two sides explore new ways and methods of cooperation, give full-play to the role of bilateral consultations and turn key cooperative projects into successes. She said China welcomes Thailand to participate in the development of the pan-Pearl River Delta in China.

Somkid said Thailand wishes to scale up trade and investment with China and strengthen cooperation among the corporate circles of the two countries.

He said Thailand welcomes more Chinese companies to invest in Thailand and tap into the financial and securities market of the country.

Source: Xinhua