* Wen and Tusk eye shale gas cooperation
* China eyes Polish banking, energy, transport sectors
* Poland keen to curb deficit in bilateral trade with China
By Gabriela Baczynska and Kevin Yao
WARSAW, April 25 (Reuters) – China aims to double trade with
Poland over the next five years, Premier Wen Jiabao said on
Wednesday during the first visit by a Chinese prime minister to
Poland since it overthrew communism more than two decades ago.
Wen agreed with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk to work
towards reducing Poland’s large trade deficit with China. Trade
between the two countries was worth 14.6 billion euros in 2011,
with Polish imports from China ten times bigger than exports.
“The Chinese side is ready to … facilitate balanced and
long-term growth in bilateral investment and trade to double the
volume over the next five years,” Wen told a joint news
conference with Tusk.
“In the face of challenges stemming from the international
financial crisis in recent years and the debt problems in the
euro zone, Poland has managed to maintain stability and growth,”
Wen said.
Poland, a European Union member outside the euro currency
zone, hopes the Asian giant will buy some of its state assets,
invest in its debt or build large-scale infrastructure.
Cash-rich China, with its $3.3 trillion foreign exchange
reserves, the world’s largest, is interested in the Polish
banking, mining, power and transport sectors, officials said.
Poland, the only EU economy to have avoided recession since
the start of the global economic crisis in 2008, could provide
an entry for China to investment in other European states.
“We have also discussed Polish-Chinese cooperation on
alternative energy sources,” Tusk said.
“That includes the need to exchange experiences on shale gas
production, as both our countries hold high hopes in regard to
their large reserves of the commodity.”
China hopes to tap shale gas reserves to reduce its reliance
on highly-polluting coal, with the U.S. Energy Agency estimating
potential at 36.1 trillion cubic metres, significantly higher
than the 24.4 tcm in the United States.
Poland, which depends on coal for more than 90 percent of
its electricity needs, estimates its shale deposits at 346
billion to 768 billion cubic metres, or enough to ensure
decades-long supplies and decrease dependence on costly Russian
imports.
Poland mainly exports copper to China, but Tusk also said
Beijing agreed to let more Polish food products into its market.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
, the country’s biggest bank, said last week it had won
approval to open a branch in Poland – the first such move by a
Chinese lender.
Wen’s visit to Poland, where he will co-host an economic
forum on Thursday and meet more than a dozen prime ministers
from eastern and southern Europe, is the final leg of his
European tour.
In neighbouring Germany, Wen said earlier this week he
wanted trade with the European Union’s largest member to
increase by half over the next three years.
Wen and China’s President Hu Jintao are due to retire from
their posts later this year with Vice President Xi Jinping
expected to be named president and Li Keqiang premier.
