MULTI-FIELD COOPERATION: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits a farm in Iceland on April 21 (RAO AIMIN)

Statistics show that the EU has become the second most attractive investment market for Chinese enterprises. By the end of 2010, China had already invested more than $12.49 billion in the EU.

New focus

Besides traditional cooperation fields like processing industries, China and Europe plan to pay more attention to trade and investment in hi-tech and green economy fields. Experts said considering the strong complementary nature of the two economies, cooperation in these fields will be a new hotspot.

Li Weiwei, an expert in European studies with the Chinese Institute of International Studies (CIIS), said for long time cooperation between China and Europe has focused on automobile and mechanical industries. In recent years, the two sides conducted more cooperation in wider fields like new energy and green economy-related products.

Feng with the CICIR said that the cooperation space between China and Europe is very big. He explained that there is a common zone between China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) and Europe 2020 Strategy because both emphasize creativity, hi-tech, green economy and sustainable development, which creates a strong basis for their practical cooperation. "China is an important market, and Europe has advanced technology. There's obvious interdependency and complementariness between them and this is the crucial point," Feng stressed.

There is a lot of room for cooperation between China and Europe, because there are many countries in Europe and each one has its distinguished features, Feng said. Wen's trip proved that China and Europe have been conducting cooperation in areas outside of foreign trade and investment, like development patterns, social management, intellectual property protection and hi-tech, he added.

China and Iceland signed several agreements on geothermal energy and polar science. Rich in geothermal energy, Iceland has advanced expertise in its utilization and has trained a considerable number of personnel for China in recent years. China has abundant geothermal resources in need of development. By April 2010, China had imported three geothermal energy technological and equipment projects from Iceland, with a total value of $7.4 million. And Iceland has trained more than 60 geothermal energy technicians for China. The two countries have a common intention to develop cooperation on geothermal utilization, fishing, shipbuilding, biochemical industries and hi-tech research.

During Wen's trip, China and Iceland also signed an agreement on polar cooperation. The Chinese premier stressed that polar cooperation was aimed at maintaining the peaceful, stable and sustainable development of the Arctic region, and the two countries could cooperate in many fields, such as the environment and security.

The trade between China and Europe is on steady increase for these new hotspots, in spite of the influence of global financial crisis. And the promoted cooperation will help the two sides to deal with possible challenges.

Shen with the CASS said unless the domino effect of the EU sovereign debt crisis triggers a vast economic disaster, trade and economic cooperation between China and the EU will not be seriously affected. He explained that like Germany, China is also a big country paying great attention to the real economy and processing industry. Europe has a reliance on China's labor-condensed products, and China needs Europe's hi-tech products, said Shen.

Li from the CIIS concluded that strengthening trade and economic cooperation will benefit both sides. And in recent years, the investment has steadily increased. "If there is more cooperation based on reciprocal benefit between China and the EU, both sides' economy will grow faster, which is going to lead to an obvious economic growth of the world economy. Then, they will be able to deal with different kinds of challenges and crises," said Li.

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