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By the end of April this year, the cumulative value of direct investment made by Japanese enterprises in China reached 66.68 billion USD, making Japan China's second largest source of foreign investment. This is according to Commerce Minister Chen Deming, who commented at a news briefing for the second China-Japan economic high-level dialogue on June 2.

Chen said that in recent years China-Japan strategic relations of mutual benefit have progressed smoothly. All-round economic and trade cooperation between the two countries reveals a sound situation with in-depth, mutual-benefit, mutual-complementary and win-win features.

China-Japan relations are displaying a positive trend towards beneficial economic and political interaction. The two countries' bilateral trade value totaled 266.8 billion USD in 2008, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year. Japan is China's third largest trade partner, while China is Japan's largest trade partner. By the end of April this year, the cumulative value of direct investment made by Japanese enterprises in China reached 66.68 billion USD, making Japan China's second largest source of foreign investment.

Chinese enterprises have taken initial and active steps to invest in Japan as well, with a group of strong Chinese enterprises having entered the Japanese market.

Chen noted that the China-Japan economic high-level dialogue is a comprehensive mechanism through which the two countries may enhance the coordination of macroeconomic policies and deepen economic and trade cooperation.

The leaders of the two countries have repeatedly agreed to further strengthen and effectively utilize the dialogue mechanism from a strategic perspective.

Given both the continued spread of the current international financial crisis and the global economic recession, economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is facing serious challenges, with a 23 percent decline in bilateral trade value and an approximate 15 percent decrease in Japan's direct investment in China in the first four months of this year.

Not only will the dialogue act as an important platform for the two sides to jointly cope with challenges and survive hard times, it is also a rare opportunity for China and Japan to look ahead into major future trends and to plan long-term development.

According to Chen, the two sides will hold dialogues based on the principle of "equal, mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation," focusing on the following topics:

Firstly, China-Japan strategic relations of mutual benefit in the fields of economy and trade should be deepened.

Secondly, ways to jointly deal with the financial crisis should be explored, seeking the goal of realizing joint recovery and development for the Chinese and Japanese economies.

Thirdly, the two sides will conduct extensive exchanges on various fields such as energy conservation, environmental protection, finance, agriculture, trade and investment, intellectual property rights, information and communication as well as disaster prevention and relief, and strive to sign relevant cooperation documents and achieve concrete results.

By People's Daily Online