CRI听力:Premier Visits Toulouse, Signs New Airbus Deal

Addressing a business summit in Toulouse, Li Keqiang again called for more bilateral cooperation in industry and energy, as well as joint efforts in exploring international markets.

"We've also decided to setup a mutual fund for international industrial capacity cooperation and exploring third-party markets to finance relevant projects and bring competitive products to third-party markets. This will be a strong countermeasure to the weak global economic recovery since the financial crisis. As such, China-France cooperation will benefit not only our two countries but also the world."

As part of his time in Toulouse, Li Keqiang and his French counterpart Manuel Valls have witnessed the signing of another batch of cooperation deals covering such areas as energy, environment and finance.

The Chinese premier has also taken time to visit the headquarters of leading aircraft maker Airbus where an agreement was signed on setting up Airbus' second plant in northern China's Tianjin.

It came after China agreed to buy 45 A330 jets worth over 11 billion US dollars, with an option for an additional 30 aircraft.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says aviation cooperation has long been a priority of bilateral cooperation.

"I was able to visit the remarkable site of Tianjin last January. And we have further deepened this partnership. Airbus has thus decided to expand its investment in Tianjin and to put in place a completion center for the ultra-high capacity aircraft A330."

Airbus' first manufacturing plant in Tianjin opened in 2008, and it has assembled more than 200 A320s so far.

The 150-million-euro new plant will be placed alongside the existing facility in late 2017.

It will be responsible for completing cabin work on A330 jetliners.

For CRI, this is Qi Zhi.