Chinese vice premier meets former French president

China is still evaluating bids for its introduction of the third-generation nuclear power technologies and hopes the French companies will propose competitive cooperation plans, said Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan in Beijing Wednesday.

Zeng made the remarks in a meeting with former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who came to China for the 12th China-France business forum to be held in Tianjin, a municipality near Beijing.

Zeng said China highly appraises the development of China-France relations in recent years. Bilateral cooperation in every field has achieved fruitful results and the two countries share consensus and common interests in many major international and regional issues, he said.

Zeng regarded the upcoming China-France business forum as "of great significance", saying the forum, with energy and sustainable development as its theme, will discuss issues on energy exploitation, usage of renewable energy and the relationship between energy and environment.

He noted that China has made the plan to accelerate nuclear power development with the aim to adjust structure of energy and realize sustainable development of energy.

China is at present introducing the third-generation nuclear power technologies and some famous international nuclear power enterprises including French companies have submitted bids, Zeng said.

He said that according to international practice, bidding for nuclear power projects needs to take into consideration the advanced level of technologies, safety of operation, reliability of quality and a reasonable price.

The bids evaluation work is still under way and China has not settled down its cooperation partners, said Zeng, adding he hopes the French companies will propose competitive cooperation plans and make continuous efforts.

The two sides also exchanged views on other issues concerning China-France economic cooperation.

Source: Xinhua