China and Switzerland will study the feasibility of a bilateral free trade agreement in the second half of this year, said Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun in Beijing Monday.

China and Switzerland are complementary in their resources and industry distributions, providing a solid foundation to discuss such a pact, Yi told a seminar on the subject.

Blaise Godet, Swiss ambassador to China, said the seminar was a first and important step toward a free trade agreement.

China has been an important business partner for Switzerland in Asia since 2002, and bilateral trade hit 11.1 billion Swiss francs (9.74 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, almost 30 times the figure in 1980, he said.

The two-day seminar attracted representatives from both countries in industries such as textiles, machines and clocks and watches.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2009)