Strategic Economic Dialogue achieved positive results: Wen

Beijing, Sep 27 (PTI) The first India-China Strategic
Economic Dialogue (SED) being held here has achieved positive
results, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said.
"During the meeting, we discussed our economic situations,
macroeconomic policies, and policies and cooperation in areas
such as investment, infrastructure construction, high
technology, energy conservation and environmental protection,"
he said while meeting the Indian delegation here on Monday
after day-long talks.
"The meeting achieved positive results," state-run news
agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Wen said he hoped the two countries will continue to make
efforts to give the dialogue a greater role in promoting
bilateral relations and cooperation.
The strategic dialogue mechanism was established
according to a consensus reached by Wen and his Indian
counterpart Manmohan Singh during Wen's visit to India last
year.
"The goal of the dialogue is to further strengthen our
mutual trust under the current situation and to expand our
strategic partnership of cooperation," Wen said.
China and India, which are good neighbours and two of the
world's largest developing countries, face many common
opportunities and challenges.
Maintaining the sound and stable development of bilateral
relations is of great importance to the two countries, the
region and the world as a whole, he said.
The two countries should enhance communication and
coordination at all levels and in all areas, expand
cooperation, take each other's concerns into consideration and
steadily pursue a means of reciprocity and common development,
Wen said.
The Indian delegation was led by the country's Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, while the
Chinese side was headed by Zhang Ping, the Director of China's
National Development and Reform Commission.
Ahluwalia said during the hour-long meeting, Wen proposed
that the SED scope should be expanded to include dialogue on
collaboration in international fora like the WTO and G-20,
besides climate change and the financial sector.
The Chinese Premier also spoke of India's capabilities in
IT and pharmaceuticals and talked about creating an
investor-friendly environment.
Indian officials went to Tianjin on Tuesday to visit a
desalinisation plant, while railway officials from both sides
continued their talks for the second day to understand each
other's systems more.
The highlight of the talks was India's push for
collaboration in the field of railways, specially China's high
speed trains, which hit the headlines recently.
Vinay Mittal, the Chairman of the Railway Board, who
attended special meetings along with two of his colleagues
from the board, Member (Electrical) Kul Bhushan and Adviser
(Infrastructure) R K Jain, said contrary to the view in India
that high-speed tracks require a lot of land, they needed far
less land than perceived.
He told the Indian media here on Monday night that
high-speed trains were feasible and necessary for India,
especially for freight corridors, and the discussions centred
on China's massive expansion in this area.
Ahluwalia said if India is looking at a GDP growth rate
of 5 per cent, the present rail infrastructure is fine, but if
it wants to grow by 9 per cent, it needs the high-speed rail
networks.
Besides railways, two separate working groups held talks
on water and energy issues. PTI KJV
EKA