China, Japan hold 5th high-level economic dialogue

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday co-chaired the fifth high-level economic dialogue between China and Japan with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Beijing.

Hailing that China-Japan relations has returned to the right track and yielded new achievements by the joint efforts of the two countries' leaders and people of all social circles, Wang said the fourth high-level economic dialogue, which was restarted after an eight-year hiatus last April, facilitated policy communication and pragmatic cooperation effectively.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, while Japan will enter the new era "Reiwa", Wang said, adding that the two countries should uphold the major consensus reached by the two countries' leaders and jointly construct bilateral economic relations to meet the needs of the new era.

The two sides should make steady headway in promoting bilateral investments and trade cooperation, jointly build the Belt and Road, and actively explore third party market cooperation as well as local cooperation, Wang said.

He also called for consolidating the cooperation results in such areas as energy conservation and environment protection, science and technology innovation, high-end manufacturing, finance, sharing economy, medical care and elderly care industries.

Wang said that China and Japan should make joint efforts to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, uphold a business environment of fairness, justice and non-discrimination, speed up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement, and safeguard multilateralism and free trade regime.

Kono said that economic cooperation has been an important foundation and driving force for Japan-China relations.

Facing a global situation of intense uncertainty, the two sides should jointly safeguard the multilateral trade mechanism based on rules, he said.

During the dialogue, senior foreign affairs and economic officials of both countries exchanged views and achieved a series of consensus on macroeconomic policies, bilateral economic cooperation and exchanges, regional economic integration, and global economic governance.

Before the dialogue, Wang and Kono jointly attended the opening ceremony of the "China-Japan Youth Exchange Promotion Year."