China to Increase Trade with Spain

China has pledged to increase trade and investment with Spain and help push the country towards more growth, China's Prime Minister said yesterday.

Wen Jiabao made the remarks to visiting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during a meeting in Beijing, China Central Television reported. He continued, "China is willing to work with Spain to adopt more measures to push forward bilateral trade and sustainable mutual investment and to seek balanced growth".

China is also prepared "to jointly safeguard financial market stability in the European Union and around the world and raise world confidence in the EU economy and the euro."

Wen also urged reform of the global financial system and efforts to fight trade protectionism, it said.

On Monday, Zapatero, accompanied by Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, wowed Chinese visitors at the Shanghai World Expo by bringing along the FIFA World Cup.

Spanish exports to China have quadrupled in the last decade to more than two billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) last year, but Chinese exports to Spain totalled 15 billion euros in 2009, according to Spanish government figures.

Spain entered its worst recession in decades at the end of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded a crisis in the once-booming property market, returning to growth in the first quarter this year with a gain of just 0.1 percent.