The Galeries Lafayette department in Paris, France Photo: AFP

China and France signed their fourth round of demonstration projects on third-party market cooperation lately, with a total investment of more than $1.7 billion covering areas including infrastructure, environmental protection and new energy, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, announced on Monday. 

The third-party markets include Africa as well as Central and Eastern Europe, and the methods of cooperation are diversified, including joint financing and joint investment, and projects where the Chinese side will be awarded engineering procurement construction contracts and France will be responsible for investing. Those projects are set to play an active role in social and economic development of the third parties. 

The projects are part of the moves to implement an important consensus on third-party market cooperation made by the leaders of both countries. France is the first country to establish an inter-government third-party market cooperation mechanism with China.

"French enterprises have a unique advantage in advanced manufacturing, environmental protection and engineering construction while Chinese firms have accumulated rich experience in basic infrastructure construction, energy, equipment building and the internet. Enterprises from both countries are complementary, and have a huge potential for third-party market cooperation," the NDRC said.  

It stressed that China-France cooperation on third-party markets is market-driven, follows the laws and policies of recipient countries, and is in line with their development priorities. Also, projects are economically viable, and socially and environmentally sustainable, while adhering to the principles of consensus, mutual benefit and fair competition. 

In the next step, the NDRC will cooperate closely with the French Ministry of Economy and Finance to facilitate the landing of more demonstration projects. 

According to the NDRC, China and France managed to overcome the impact of the pandemic and facilitated the landing of a batch of important projects in Africa, Southeast Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, after signing a memorandum of understanding on third-party market cooperation in 2016.

In June 2015, the Chinese and French governments issued a joint statement on developing third-party market cooperation during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to France. 

Global Times