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2006-11-08 | Southwest China

5th EU Asia-Invest Forum Concludes in Chengdu
Han Wei, China Radio International, 8th November 2006

The fifth EU Asia-Invest Forum concluded in Chengdu on Tuesday. Around 130 representatives of enterprises and business organizations from 34 countries across Europe and Asia participated in the two-day meeting. They discussed various issues concerning economic cooperation between the European Union and Asian countries. CRI's Hanwei files the story from Chengdu.

The two-day forum has been considered a major platform for small and medium sized enterprises from Europe and Asia to exchange experiences and ideas.

During the forum, 4 working groups discussed issues concerning different aspects of the EU-Asia partnership, while over 500 individual networking meetings were held for business delegates to communicate.

Vicent Piket, the head of the EU's Centralised Operations for Asia, applauded the success of the event.

"This was an extremely concrete and productive meeting among representatives of organizations from Asia and Europe dealing with business cooperation. The goal was very simple: to share experiences of the project so far, to compare notes of progress and to design cooperation projects for the future."

The Asia-Invest Forum is a key activity of the EU's Asia Invest Program, which was launched in 1998 aiming to enhance cooperation between small and medium sized enterprises from the two continents.

According to Piket, so far, the program has implemented more than 320 projects involving 1,400 business organizations from Europe and Asia in partnerships that span numerous sectors and industries.

Banjara, a representative from Nepal's private sector, saw the forum as a good platform to learn ideas and search for new opportunities.

"By coming to this forum, [we have seen] there are so many other countries that are implementing similar projects. So we could exchange experiences and views and learn how to implement more effectively. And I had very good networking experiences with important people from the EU that could be helpful to getting projects in the future."

This is the second time the forum has been held in China. An active participant in the program, China has been involved in a total of 120 projects . Later this week, the EU-China Parteneriat 2006 will also be held in Chengdu, promising to further communication between businesses from China and the EU.

Click here to view/listen to the report on CRI's website.