A large-scale seminar on the Chinese economy and investment in China was held in Stockholmt on Thursday and Friday.

The event hosted around 800 entrepreneurs and researchers from Sweden, other north European countries, and the Baltic sea region as well as business personnel from China. Its purpose was to promote a greater understanding of China and future cooperative trade ventures.

In contrast to previous seminars on the Chinese economy, it invited non-Chinese employees of international companies working in China from such sectors as finance, trade, research, education, human resources and mass media and heard their accounts of the opportunities and challenges they had experienced in working in China.

The seminar also discussed China's economic development, issues regarding engaging in outsourcing services in China, and the status quo of the Chinese market and its consumers.

The Chinese ambassador to Sweden Lu Fengding addressed the seminar and introduced China's economic achievements and its development prospects.

Regarding the development of economic ties between China and North European countries, the ambassador said that the economies of his nation and those countries were complementary to one other, and there was great potential to further boost trade relations and investment.

Lu hoped that north European entrepreneurs and people from various circles could gain a better understanding of China, strengthen their faith in trade with China, uphold the principles of free trade, oppose trade protectionism and further boost their reciprocal economic ties with China.

In his speech at the seminar, the Swedish ambassador to China, Dr. Borje Ljunggren, said that the bilateral ties between China and Sweden had been developed soundly, and that China was now the largest business partner of Sweden in Asia.

Addressing the seminar and representing the Swedish government, Sweden's Minister of Industry and also Minister for Industry and Trade, Thomas Ostros, said that Sweden would continue to oppose trade protectionism.

The seminar was sponsored by various big North European enterprises and organizations such as Sweden's international economic consultant company Springfellow, Scandinavian Airlines System, and the Swedish-Chinese trade promotion association.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2006)