Lew: China, US must foster economy

China's ability to maintain "medium to high speed" economic growth and the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral investment treaty between China and the United States will create greater potential and provide better conditions for the commercial cooperation between the two countries, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday.

Yang made the remarks at the breakfast meeting with Chinese and American entrepreneurs during the eighth round of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

Vice-Premier Wang Yang, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew also attended the meeting to discuss investment and trade related issues with 12 Chinese and the US entrepreneurs from sectors including health care, logistics, financial service, culture and consultancy.

Yang said that Chinese and the US entrepreneurs have made valuable contributions to economic relationship between the two countries and the Chinese government hopes that they can expand the relationship to new fields including joint exploration for business opportunities in third markets globally.

"There will always be competition between the Chinese and the US firms under the market economy conditions. We hope that they can seek cooperation in the competition and achieve win-win results," the state councilor said.

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that the two governments have the responsibility to foster the conditions that will facilitate continued increase of investment, trade and commercial cooperation as foreign businesses are confronting a more complex regulatory environment and questioning how welcome they are.

"This means acting on policies that encourage healthy competition, ensuring predictability and transparency in the regulatory process, protecting intellectual property rights and removing discriminatory investment barriers," he said.

Established in 2009, the S&ED has served as a high-level dialogue for the top officials of the two countries to discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional, and global economic and strategic issues.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said at the breakfast meeting with entrepreneurs that certainty, clarity, evenhandedness and equal application of the laws are critical to the confidence in the market place for the bilateral investment and economic growth of the two countries.

Kerry said that China and the US, as the world's two largest economies, have a major role to play with respect of the global economic prosperity, adding that the S&ED discussion will help clarify and remove some of the corporate concerns.

"We are here to strengthen the relationship and to try to get barriers out of the way and move the process forward as rapidly as we can," he said.

lixiang@chinadaily.com.cn