Li Qiang urges Belgium to provide open, fair, transparent business environment

Chinese Premier Li Qiang called on Belgium to provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises as he met Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium Alexander De Croo in Beijing on Friday.

Premier Li pointed out that in the past decade, bilateral ties have been moving forward steadily and cooperation in various fields has continued to expand, bringing tangible benefits to the people of the two countries.

He told De Croo that China is willing to work with the Belgian side to adhere to mutual respect, mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness, implement the important consensus of the two leaders, strengthen strategic communication, build up political mutual trust, explore the potential of cooperation, and inject more impetus into the common development of the two countries.

Stressing China and Belgium are mutually important economic and trade partners, the Chinese premier said China is willing to consolidate and expand the scale of trade, deepen cooperation in logistics and port services with Belgium as well as promote the development of cross-border e-commerce.

China welcomes more Belgian enterprises to invest in China and supports more Chinese enterprises to invest in Belgium Li said while voicing the hope that the Belgian side will uphold the concept of openness and follow the market principle to provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises.

The two sides should strengthen exchanges and cooperation in science and technology innovation, give full play to their complementary strengths, deepen cooperation in areas such as environmental protection, modern agriculture, biomedicine, civil nuclear energy and artificial intelligence, and strengthen exchanges in culture, education and youth, Li added.

He also urged Belgium to make positive contributions to the sustained, healthy and stable development of China-EU relations.

De Croo said Belgium and China are partners with booming economic and trade cooperation, high-quality dialogues and consultations, adding the two sides share the same goal in addressing global issues such as climate change.

Belgium adheres to the one-China policy, the prime minister noted.

He also said Belgium is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in the fields of agriculture and food, nuclear energy, communications, science and technology, deepen people-to-people exchanges, expand common interests, and push the Belgium-China relationship to a new level.

As the country holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, Belgium supports the further development of Europe-China relations, De Croo told Li.

After the talks, the two prime ministers witnessed the signing of a number of bilateral cooperation documents in economy and trade, agri-food and agriculture.