High-level Visits between China and the US Bears Fruit with their Economic and Trade Cooperation Pattern Taking on a new Look
ENN February 20, 2012
Xi jinping, Vice President of China started his trip to the United Stated recently at the invitation of Joe Biden, Vice President of the US. This visit is expected to strengthen the cooperation between the two countries and boost confidence. On Feb 17th in Los Angeles, China and the US signed 50 plus economic and trade contracts valued 30 billion dollars on the China-US Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. This is the second big scale economic and trade pact between these two countries after 45 billion dollars in contracts when President Hu Jintao visited the US last year. Among these contracts, some are of the traditional mode of purchase and import, including Sanhe Hopeful Grain & Oil Group, which purchasing 1 billion dollars in soy beans from an American company, Yingli Energy’s purchased 1.634 billion dollars in silicon material. There are also some contracts for a new mode of cooperation, such as ENN’s investment to build a clean energy ecological center in Nevada. As well, there is Jiaxing Stone Wheel and Zhejiang Hengzheng Valve’s joint-purchase of American tire making enterprises. This kind of cooperation embodies a diverse investment mode, and displays a new trend of Sino-US economic and trade cooperation mode based on the background of frequent mutual visits between the two countries.
According to the “Letter of Intent for Cooperation of the Clean Energy Ecological Center Project” between ENN and Nevada’s Clark County government, ENN will invest 5 billion dollars in Nevada to build a clean energy ecological center, which mainly includes a solar energy photovoltaic generation base, a solar module manufacturing base and a future energy eco-town. This investment mode of capital plus technologies will not only provide green energy to local residents, but also provide them with more than 4,000 jobs. On the China-US Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum on Feb 17th, Wang Yusuo, ENN’s Chairman of the board made a speech on behalf of Chinese private-owned enterprises and expressed his confidence and good wishes for the investment and cooperation in the new industry. Meanwhile, he said ENN would carry forward its spirit of innovation and begin a second start-up with the support of Chinese and American governments.
Experts said the investment and cooperation pattern of “capital plus technologies” will hopefully boost cooperation between China and the US, which confirms Vice President Xi Jinping’s prediction and opinion that “Sino-US cooperation has undergone a fundamental change in pattern.”
For a long time, “Investing and making profits” has been the main method of American enterprises in their global development. The trade situation of “trade surplus in China and profit in the US” has lasted for decades. Regarding this economic and trade mode, Xi Jinping pointed out when Biden visited China in August 2011, “with the further development of China’s reform and opening to the outside world and modernization, the traditional Sino-US cooperation pattern that the US provides capital and technologies while china provides labor, resources and market has undergone a fundamental change. ” As to the reasons for this change, experts believe it has a lot to do with the fast improvement of Chinese enterprises’ “new power in technological innovations.” In some fields Chinese technology is now a leader. ENN’s clean energy investment project in Nevada is a typical case.
It is not the first time that ENN has participated in project cooperation in the clean energy field in the US. Starting in 2009, ENN group began cooperation in the photovoltaic field with Duke Energy, one of American’s biggest energy companies. Analysts consider ENN’s “capital plus technologies” project of the clean energy eco center in Nevada a ground-breaking event which will be a milestone in starting a new pattern in the China-US economic and trade dynamic. Behind this new pattern is the rise of China’s comprehensive strength and technology innovation power and America’s confidence and open mind toward its cooperation with China.
During his visit to China last year, Biden has expressed the US is willing to step up cooperation with China on market access and mutual investment and welcomes and encourages the direct investment in the US from Chinese businesses and entities. Apparently, both the US and China have realized that with the acceleration of the globalization process, competition and cooperation has become an inevitable trend. To pursue cooperation in competition and form new cooperative patterns is the key to a win-win result, and it will be the development tendency of future economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.