OREANDA-NEWS. August 25, 2011. Captain Wei Jiafu, President & CEO of COSCO Group, attended the China-US Business Dialog in Beijing Hotel. The dialog meeting was attended by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and the visiting US Vice President Joseph Biden. The dialog, which served as a high-profile platform for interactions between Chinese and American business leaders, was jointly organized by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade ("CCPIT"), US-China Business Council Inc. ("USCBC") and American Chamber of Commerce in China ("AmCham-China"), reported the press-centre of COSCO.

In a remark after the speeches by Chinese Vice President Xi and US Vice President Biden, Captain Wei mentioned the maiden voyage made by COSCO's M.V. Liu Lin Hai to the Port of Seattle in April 1979, an event that had broken the 30-year frozen ice of China-US maritime trade. "COSCO's launch of a direct liner service to Boston Port" said Captain Wei, "helped save thousands of port-related jobs in Boston and boosted the growth of local port economy in Massachusetts. He described COSCO's partnership with Massachusetts Port Authority ("Massport") as a typical win-win model of successful business collaboration between China and the US. Captain Wei also highlighted COSCO's reputable joint-venture stevedoring business with SSA ("Stevedoring Services of America Inc"), which, through its sound growth and harmonious cross-cultural management, has brought concrete benefits to the port and shipping community in Long Beach, California. Citing COSCO's role as a good global corporate citizen, Captain Wei also introduced COSCO's efforts to promote port security, green economy, fair competition and high-quality service in the US.  

"In an era of unprecedented sophistication of world economic and financial status," stressed by Captain Wei, "the business communities of China and the US need to shoulder more responsibilities and to find new areas of win-win cooperation." To achieve that end, Captain Wei put forward three recommendations. Firstly, China and the US should deepen the cooperation in respect of service trade. In particular, Chinese enterprises should be more encouraged to invest in the logistics and port infrastructures of the US. Secondly, Chinese and American business should work together or to join hands with companies from other countries in the search of more global business and investment opportunities. Thirdly, the US exporters should better benefit from the growth of China's consumption market and sell more high-tech products and high-end manufacture goods to China, contributing to the balance of the bilateral trade.

Captain Wei finally said, as a sea bridge for China-US trade, COSCO is confident towards mutual trade and investment between China and the US, and is fully committed to the future progress of China-US friendship. 

Nine other Chinese and American business leaders also spoke at the Dialog, which was presided over by Wan Jifei, Chairman of CCPIT. Apart from COSCO Group, the Dialog was also attended by top executives from China Unicom, COFCO, Suntech Power Co, XEMC, Bank of China, Haier Group, Legend Group, Wanxiang Group, Coca Cola, Caterpiller, GE, Chindex, Corning Inc., DuPont, General Motors (China) Co, JP Morgan, Acorn International, and AmCham-China.