Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao Saturday identified five areas for further deepening all-round cooperation with Canada and gave priority to bilateral trade and economy.

Speaking at the dinner of the first Sino-Canada Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum, which was attended by over 800 government officials and businessmen from both countries, Hu said China and Canada should pool their efforts to step up investment, enhance cooperation in energy and resources, promote cooperation in service trade, strengthen trade policy dialogue and increase personnel exchanges.

He said, "In the past two days, I have had extensive exchanges of views with Governor General (Adrienne) Clarkson and Prime Minister (Paul) Martin in Ottawa on ways to deepen our all-round cooperation and reached agreement on many issues."

Substantial progress has been made in Sino-Canadian relations over the past 35 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, he said.

According to Chinese statistics, two-way trade increased over 100 times from US$150 million in the early days of Sino-Canadian diplomatic relations to US$15.5 billion in 2004.

However, given the size of the two economies and our respective foreign trade volume, there is still a great potential for bilateral trade and economic cooperation, Hu said.

"China is ready to work with Canada to tap the potential of continued cooperation in all fields in the spirit of equality and mutual benefit so as to better serve our two peoples and further promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large," Hu said.

Hu called on the Canadian business community to invest and take part in developing China's west, rejuvenating the old industrial bases in the northeast and reforming China's state-owned enterprises.

On energy cooperation, Hu said both China and Canada will stand to gain from a long-term and stable partnership in the fields of energy and resources.

"We can step up cooperation in the research, development and use of clean and replaceable energies and deepen cooperation in the field of traditional energies," Hu said.

China will further open its own service industry and more Canadian enterprises are welcome to develop the market and expand their businesses in China, he said.

"China and Canada have both done a great deal to improve the environment for cooperation. We should do still more in this regard to make it even easier for goods, investment and services to enter the respective markets," he said.

China has become one of the biggest sources of foreign students in Canada, and more and more young Canadian students have been attracted to China for academic pursuit, he said.

Beijing and Vancouver will host the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics respectively, which provides a good opportunity for the two countries to carry forward the Olympic spirit and promote cultural exchanges, he said.

Hu arrived in Ottawa on Thursday for a four-day visit to Canada. He is scheduled to leave Toronto on Sunday for Mexico City.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2005)