With China's rapid growth cementing the country as a global economic powerhouse, the Sino-US relationship is becoming more important than ever before.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's address to the Shanghai Futures Exchange yesterday centered around this theme. Paulson's speech was rounding out his two-day tour of China, set to ease the terrain ahead of the second round of Sino-US strategic economic dialogue in Washington in May.

"We welcome China's growth and integration into the world economy, as it benefits the Chinese people and the people of the world," Paulson said, addressing around 300 people, including central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, government officials, scholars and business representatives.

This forms Paulson's third visit to the Asian power since his accession as Treasury Secretary and he duly reiterated that his position has always been intricately linked with China since the economic relationship between the two powers forms an essential part of all bilateral relations.

"The economic relations between our two nations are crucial to the global economy, and I believe we share many of the same goals. The US advocates the same policies of openness and market principles that China's leaders have embraced to bring balanced, harmonious growth to your nation," Paulson said.

In the last five years, the US and China have been jointly responsible for over 50 percent of global growth, thus ensuring China's continuing economic success will be crucial not only to its own people but to the rest of the world as well, he said.

Paulson, visiting in Shanghai after a short meeting with Vice Premier Wu Yi on Wednesday in Beijing, also spoke of his admiration for the achievements of China's banking, securities and insurance sectors.

"China has understood the benefits of a deeper, more sophisticated and more competitive financial sector will make aspirations of harmonious growth a real possibility. Already, significant changes have been made, changes I have witnessed first-hand," he lauded.

One of these accomplishments is the recapitalization of four of China's top five state-owned banks. Furthermore, the country has invited strategic investors and closed initial public offerings, the benefits of which are seen in terms of corporate governance, external audits and new public shareholders.  

(China Daily March 9, 2007)