China, Philippines to Expand Trade and Economic CooperationTrade officials from China and the Philippines agreed Wednesday to expand cooperation in agriculture and fishing sectors as well as bilateral trade.Sun Guangxiang, vice-minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) of China, also told Thomas Aquino, undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, that the two sides should increase the proportion of machinery and electronic products. Aquino is here attending the 21st session of the China-Philippine Joint Trade Commission, which he and Sun jointly chaired today. The two sides held their last session in 1997. Sun and Aquino both agreed that there is great potential in trade cooperation and other sectors. Aquino said the Philippines has great expectations in developing bilateral trade which he described as an "important partner of trade and economic cooperation." Two-way trade volume between China and the Philippines reached 2.287 billion US dollars last year, up 14.35 percent from a year ago. In the first half of the year, the trade volume hit 1.414 billion US dollars, up 28.55 percent from the year-ago period. |
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