Premier Li Keqiang called for two-way opening-up to expand bilateral cooperation when he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday in Beijing.

German companies are welcome to continue sharing benefits brought by an opening Chinese market and Germany is expected to create a fair and open environment for Chinese companies to invest in the country and other European nations, he said.

The premier also called for strengthening cooperation in emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, new energy automobiles and self-driving vehicles, and exploring potential in the research and development of smart manufacturing. Third-party market cooperation should be deepened, which can be piloted in Central and Eastern Europe, he said.

The Chinese government supports sending interns to each other's country to learn professional skills and promote craftsmanship, he said.

China supports European integration and hopes the EU can stride toward prosperity with internal solidarity, which is beneficial to multilateralism and China's interests, Li said. China is looking forward to advancing a bilateral investment treaty with the EU, while working with the bloc to safeguard rule-based multilateral trading systems and promoting trade liberalization and investment facilitation, he said.

China recently released a series of measures for opening-up and will further reduce market access threshold, lowering shareholding ratios of foreign companies in fields such as automaking and the financial sector, he said. Intellectual property rights protection will be strengthened and a business environment of fair competition will be accelerated, which provides more opportunities for companies from Germany, Europe and other countries and regions, he added.

Merkel said this is her 11th visit to China and her country has attached great importance to bilateral ties. She said Chinese companies are welcome to invest in Germany, which supports advancing the China-EU bilateral investment treaty and making progress as soon as possible.