Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the headquarters of British Petroleum PLC in London on Sunday and held talks with the CEO of the world oil giant Lord Browne on energy cooperation.

 

The Chinese premier, who arrived in London Sunday morning for a three-day official visit, said that he was very pleased to hold talks with Lord Browne in BP headquarters on issues of energy which is of strategic importance to China's economic construction.

 

Browne expressed his welcome to the Chinese Premier and gave a brief introduction of BP's Yaraco Joint Venture in Chongqing.

 

BP is one of the world's largest oil and petrochemical groups and its operations mainly focus on oil and gas exploration, oil refining and natural gas sales and transport. Its assets are currently valued at US$200 billion and it ranked the 5th on the list of 500 top global companies of Fortunes magazine in 2003.

 

BP started its businesses in China in 1973 and its whole investment in various fields in China so far accumulated to over US$4 billion. It now has more than 20 joint ventures and operations in China.

 

 

Earlier, Wen also visited the headquarters of one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline in London and watched the demonstration of a three-dimensional molecule model on computer which, as one of the latest medicine developing technology, could reduce the time of developing a new medicine.

 

GlaxoSmithKline has a history in China far back to early 20th century, and since 1980s has made significant investments in the fast developing country. It so far has established six legal entities encompassing five manufacturing facilities with a total investment exceeding US$400 million in China.

 

Observers here said that the Chinese Premier started his visit to Britain by going to the two big British companies that invested heavily in China showed that the Chinese government attaches great importance to developing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

 

During his stay in Britain, Wen will hold talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on bilateral relations and various issues of common interest.

 

This is the fourth leg of Wen's 12-day European tour which has already taken him to Germany, Belgium and Italy. He will leave for Ireland on Tuesday before returning home.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2004)