China and Japan announced yesterday the creation of a joint high-level economic dialogue mechanism which will serve to promote economic and trade ties between the two countries. The first meeting is set to be held later this year in Beijing.

Strengthening economic cooperation is a foundation stone of the Sino-Japanese strategic, mutually beneficial relationship, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who co-chaired the launching ceremony of the mechanism along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Wen stated that a principal aim of the dialogue mechanism is to allow the sharing of joint economic development strategies and macro-economic policies, said Wen.

It will also seek to bring in different departments from both countries to better build economic ties and more efficiently discuss major issues of common concern, he said.

The mechanism's role will stretch to guiding Sino-Japanese cooperation in a plethora of areas such as energy, environmental protection, financing, telecommunications and intellectual property rights protection, Wen said.

Abe echoed Wen in saying that the launching of the high-level economic dialogue mechanism would mark the beginning of the economic sphere of the strategic partnership, as well as being step up in bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

China and Japan are indispensable trading partners for each other, said Abe. Strengthening cooperation between the two will play an important role in helping solve environmental and energy problems faced by the world, he said.

Abe called for the two nations to continue dialogues from a global perspective, thus improving the all-round development of Japan-China relations.

According to the recommendations of Wen and Abe, Chinese Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso will be act as co-chairs of the dialogue mechanism.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)