A dinner banquet for the 45th visit of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade (JAPIT) to China was held in Beijing on April 18. Gao Yan, Chairperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Yohei Kono, JAPIT President, and Yutaka Yokoi, Japan's ambassador to China attended and addressed at the dinner banquet. Nearly 200 business delegates from China and Japan were in attendance.

Gao Yan said, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua’s meeting with the visiting delegation this afternoon greatly boosts the confidence in bilateral cooperation. The economic community of the two countries shall give full play to their complementary advantages, and jointly build the Belt and Road cooperation platform based on the consensus reached by the two countries’ governments on mutually-beneficial cooperation to improve and upgrade bilateral cooperation ties. CCPIT is willing to work with JAPIT to actualize the instructions reached by both leaders, uphold the belief that friendship should prevail in China-Japan relations , seize opportunities to embark on a new journey of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and continuously promote pragmatic cooperation between enterprises of the two countries.

Yohei Kono noted, the current world economy is faced with complexity and volatility. Thus, strengthening Japan-China economic and trade cooperation is conducive to Japan's economic development. Vice Premier Hu Chunhua’s meeting with the visiting delegation highlights the direction for fostering cooperation between the business communities of the two countries. Through this visit, the delegation got an in-depth understanding of China's economic situation and gained more confidence in carrying out mutually beneficial cooperation. He hoped JAPIT and CCPIT can make joint efforts to step up bilateral economic ties.

Yutaka Yokoi said, with the joint efforts of the leaders of the two countries, Japan-China relations have been back to the normalcy. At the just-concluded fifth Japan-China high-level economic dialogue, a number of key consensus has been reached, and some key topics as the third-party market cooperation and innovative cooperation have been discussed. This year is a crucial year for both Japan and China, and we hope to take this opportunity to promote bilateral ties into a new era from competition to coordination.

Officials from CCPIT Research and Development Department were in attendance.