Berlin - Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday appealed for more investment from Germany and increased bilateral trade, ahead of a visit to Berlin as part of his European trip.
The German and Chinese economies were 'highly complementary,' Li wrote in a guest article for daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
'The long-term, stable and rapid development of the Chinese economy and the entrenchment of reforms ... will offer new chances for our cooperation in economics, trade and beyond,' wrote Li, who is responsible for finance and economic reform in China.
He said China hoped to attract investment in agriculture, environmental protection and new energy markets, as well as new and high-tech products.
'We hope the EU will loosen its export restrictions for high-tech products to China,' Li added.
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At the same time, he called on Germany to relax conditions for Chinese entrepreneurs to enter the German market.'At present, 4,500 German companies are investing and doing business in China. We would be happy ... if conditions for investments and setting up business could be improved for Chinese companies in Germany,' Li wrote.
Li, 55, who has been billed as a future successor to Premier Wen Jiabao, is due to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle during his three-day visit.
He was due to arrive Thursday from Spain and travel on to Britain from Germany.
Li stressed that China remained the world's largest developing country, where 150 million lived on less than a dollar a day, and infrastructure such as roads and drinking water were severely lacking in many rural areas.
'We need to restructure the distribution of income, improve public services and build up a social security network ... to release the consumption potential of the population which numbers more than a billion,' he wrote.
He stressed the 'fundamental role of the market in the distribution of resources,' as well as a need to 'strengthen the momentum and vitality of the economy.'
Against the background of the global financial crisis, Li said China would stick to its 'mutually beneficial' strategy of opening up its markets.
China would improve legislation and investment policies to 'protect intellectual property and create a stable, orderly transparent and predictable market environment,' Li added.
In recent years China overtook Germany as the world's leading export economy. Bilateral trade for 2010 is expected to exceed 140 billion dollars (105 billion euros), almost 30 per cent of China's trade with the EU, according to Li.
