China, EU will continue to be important trade and economic partners

China hopes to strengthen economic and trade policy communications with the European Union to safeguard the stability of the industrial and supply chains as well as promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, in order to support true multilateralism and make active contributions to world economic recovery, Shu Jueting, spokeswoman of the Ministry of Commerce, said at an online media conference on Thursday.

She made the remarks after being asked for comments on a new report the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China released on Wednesday.

"We have noticed the EU paper stated that it hopes the EU will continue to proactively interact with China and oppose economic decoupling," she said.

"We believe China and the EU are important economic and trade partners to each other, and we should promote pragmatic cooperation based on mutual respect and win-win principles," she said.

Shu also said the world economy is facing multiple challenges as unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise and the global consensus on opening-up has been weakened.

She stressed that China always supports economic globalization, unswervingly expands high-level opening-up and is accelerating the construction of the new dual-circulation development pattern, to provide more market, investment and growth opportunities for enterprises from all over the world.

During the first eight months, China's actual use of foreign capital surged 20.2 percent year-on-year to $138.4 billion, and investment flows from the EU into China expanded 123.7 percent. That demonstrated foreign investors' firm confidence in China, including those from the EU, Shu said.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn