An official with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said Thursday that China will increase cooperation with the European Union (EU) in the fields of micro-electronics, integrated circuits (IC), software and mobile telecommunications.

Chen Linhao, with the Department of International Cooperation under the MOST, said at a press conference that information technology is one of the most likely fields in which China and the EU will successfully cooperate.

The "2002 Euro-China Cooperation Forum on the Information Society" will be held on April 16-20, 2002, in Beijing.

Jose Cotta, head of the Unit on International Aspects, Innovation and SMEs under the European Commission, said that mobile telecommunications has the biggest potential for future cooperation between China and the EU, because China has the largest number of mobile phone users in the world.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Information Industry show that by the end of 2001, the number of mobile phone users in China had reached 140 million.

Jose Cotta said that the impending forum, jointly sponsored by MOST, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the European Commission, has attracted more than 350 European information telecommunication companies, such as Siemens and Ericsson, as well as over 250 experts from governments, universities and institutions in Europe.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2002)