国内英语新闻:Top Chinese legislator calls for close Sino-Franco trade partnership

Wu said the Chinese and French economies are highly complementary to each other and have great potential for more bilateral cooperation.

China and France should develop their trade cooperation from a strategic perspective, exert their advantages and enhance substantial cooperation in line with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win, Wu said.

He laid out a three-point proposal to jointly build a close, long-term and sustainable new-type China-France economic partnership.

"The first is to deepen cooperation on big projects. The economic and trade cooperation between China and France is featured in large number of big and technology-intensive projects in such fields as nuclear power exploration, aerospace and high-speed railway," Wu said.

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, addresses the Chinese-French forum on economic and trade cooperation in Paris, capital of France, July 9, 2010.

France is building a third generation of pressurized water nuclear power plants in China's Guanggong province. Airbus A320 airplanes are assembled in north China' municipality of Tianjin. Companies like Alstom are participating in China's Three Gorges Project, and in the construction of high-speed railway and track traffic.

China is willing to continue enhancing cooperation with France in joint research and development as well as design in aerospace, expanding comprehensive industrial cooperation in nuclear power exploration, and increasing technological cooperation in high-speed railways and track traffic, Wu said.

At present, France is investing in almost 4,000 projects in China worth about 9.88 billion U.S. dollars. The direct investment of Chinese firms to France has reached to 1.5 billion dollars.