MOSCOW: China has complimented India for “doing a good job” in maintaining an impressive growth rate despite a global slowdown and is keen on working together to push for reforms in the international financial system to offset the inherent weaknesses.
Stating that his country was keen to ramp up investments in India, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the two major emerging economies can contribute significantly in helping the world economy by keeping up their growth momentum.
“First of all, we both need to grow our own national economies. On this front, we want to commend India for doing a good job in promoting economic growth,” Wang told PTI here.
Wang, who was here to attend Foreign Ministers’ meeting of RIC (Russia, India, China) grouping, further said reform of global financial system is key to protect the interest of developing countries and for recovery of the world economy.
“We need to join hands in playing a positive role in improving the global economic and financial governance because that will help protect the interests of the developing countries. It will also help the world economy to embark on a path of strong recovery,” Wang said.
He said China was “optimistic” about the prospect of deeper relationship between the two countries.
“Of course, we will be happy to invest more in India. There is no doubt about it,” he added.
After witnessing nearly three decades of close to double-digit growth, China has seen a decline in its growth rate, making room for India to replace it as the fastest-growing major economy of the world.
However, Chinese economy remains much bigger than that of India in terms of the overall size.
China clocked 6.9 per cent growth in 2015 when India is estimated to have grown by 7.3 per cent. The IMF has projected Indian economy to grow at 7.5 per cent in 2016 and 2017.
The Chinese Foreign Minister also said his government was “looking forward” to President Pranab Mukherjee’s upcoming visit to China.
“China, India relations are advancing very rapidly. We have similar positions on major international issues because we are major developing countries. And we both put economic development at the centre of our national development agenda.
We are deepening our cooperation,” Wang said.
Mukherjee will travel to China next month, setting off a series of high-level visits as the two countries seek to deepen their engagements despite irritants in ties over issues like Beijing blocking India’s bid to get a UN ban on JeM head Masood Azhar.
Dates for the visit have not been announced yet.
Mukherjee is expected to visit Beijing and Chinese industrial city of Guangzhou which has stronger trade links with India.
This will be a reciprocal visit after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India in 2014. It will be followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chinese city of Hangzhou to attend the G20 leaders summit in September.
Sino-India trade ties have expanded significantly in the last few years. The bilateral trade volume was USD 70.4 billion last year.
“In September this year, China will host the G-20 summit and India is an important member of that organization. So we stand ready to work with India more closely to ensure the success of the G-20 summit,” Wang said.
On RIC, Wang said the three countries together account for over 40 per cent of world’s population and they should step up strategic cooperation and work together to maintain world peace and stability.
“Our three countries need to shoulder more of our common responsibilities,” he said.-PTI
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