Youths from China and India shall carry forward the traditional friendship among young people, pursue common dreams through innovation and make contributions to Asia's development, a Chinese youth leader said.

Wang Hongyan, president of the All-China Youth Federation, said the two civilizations have learned from and worked with each other since ancient times and made significant contributions to the progress of human society.

She said the two nations' roles in the global landscape and the globalization process have never been as prominent, given that their collective economic size has reached half of that in Asia and one-fifth in the world.

People from two nations, especially youths, have worked in solidarity to fight COVID-19 pandemic and testified to the essence of China's proposal to build a "community with a shared future for humanity", she said at a Zoom seminar on Jan 26.

The China-India Youth Entrepreneurship Forum, held by the federation alongside Confederation of Young Leaders, a youth leadership organization in India, works as a new platform for young leaders from both countries seeking cooperation, the president said.

"I wish you participants can find new partners, achieve common development and bond together through sharing stories about starting businesses and experience in achieving innovation," she added.

Confederation of Young Leader Chairman Himadrish Suwan said the economic complementarity between the two countries is very strong.

"China has been India's largest trading partner for many years in a row, while India is also China's largest trading partner in South Asia," he said, adding it is the natural result of market rules and choices of enterprises.

He noted the 2.7 billion people of the two countries have benefited from such cooperation, which has injected strong pulse to a model of a win-win cooperation.

While acknowledging the challenges in launching successful businesses, the chairman said entrepreneurs can act as powerful agents to create jobs and boost economic development if they do succeed.

China ramped up the push for entrepreneurial innovations in 2014 as part of a sweeping economic reform. Wang, the president, said China added 7 million new businesses and 107 unicorn enterprises annually by 2019, the second-highest after the United States.

China has 12,000 business incubators and 2,800 investment agencies for startups, whose total value reaches about $140 billion, she said.