China-Belgium Economic and Trade Forum, co-sponsored by Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, organized by Investment Promotion Agency of Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Belgian Business Association, was held in Brussels on October 9th. Chinese vice Premier Xi Jinping and Belgian Prince Philip attended the forum. Vice Premier Xi delivered important speech on further advancing China-Belgium trade and economic cooperation. Zhong Shan, Chinese Deputy Minister of Commerce, also gave speech at the forum. All together 300 plus representatives from Chinese and Belgian enterprises participated in the forum.

Zhong Shan said that in the last five years, China-Belgium trade volume maintains an average annual growth of 20%, exceeding $20 billion in 2008. The two-way investment between China and Belgium has also been enhanced significantly. Belgium remains for several years running the ninth biggest foreign fund source in EU for China, and also provided a lot of advanced technologies and equipment to China. It is hoped that Chinese and Belgian companies can establish closer trade ties and strengthen investment cooperation, so as to bring the bilateral economic and trade relations to a new level.

The representatives from Chinese and Belgium government, enterprises and research institutions gave speech at the forum, focusing on introducing the trade, investment policies, and the new development in fields of telecommunication, pharmaceuticals and textile. After the forum, enterprises of the two counties conducted match-making negotiations, and several agreements and letter of intent were reached.

The Chinese Trade and Investment Promotion Delegation taking part in the forum consists of over 110 enterprises from nearly 20 provinces, covering such sectors as chemistry, textile, pharmaceutical , real estate, mine and logistics.