Visiting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he hoped that more Chinese products will be introduced to the market in Yemen when attending a China-Yemen business seminar in Beijing on Friday morning.

The Yemeni president told 200-odd entrepreneurs from the two countries that he was convinced the quality of Chinese products had continued to improve over the last few years.

"I believe that it will become even better," Saleh said, "that's why so many Yemeni businessman come to China or even live here, and they have introduced more and more Chinese products to Yemen."

He said the Yemeni business people who are accompanying him on his China trip hoped to further increase economic cooperation by meeting their Chinese counterparts.

He said he appreciated the importance that the Chinese government has attached to Yemen. "Chinese firms are welcome to invest in the free-trade zone in Aden, a major city in and a gateway to West Asia."

According to Yu Ping, Vice President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Yemen is one of the oil-producing nations in the Middle East region and China and Yemen enjoy traditional cooperative relations in the field of energy.

Two nations also have potential in cooperating in fields like infrastructure projects, communications, machinery and electronic products, Yu said.

Statistics from the Chinese customs show that the trade volume between the two countries topped 3.215 billion US dollars in 2005, up 67.8 percent.

President Saleh has come to China as his Chinese counterpart President Hu Jintao's guest. This is his third visit to China as Yemeni president.

Source: Xinhua