China trade promotion agency inaugurates new office in U.S.

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The inauguration ceremony for the new office of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Representative Office in the United States was held here on Tuesday night.

"This year, CCPIT's Rep. Office relocated to this new place, closer than before to the White House, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, USCBC (United States-China Business Council), and other important government departments and counterparts. It is more convenient for us to contact all parties and enhance our friendship," said Ren Hongbin, chairman of CCPIT.

"I hope our U.S. Rep. Office could take this relocation as a new starting point, carry out more concrete and effective work, and further contribute to the bilateral business cooperation," said Ren.

"We will leverage the role of our representative office here to help deepen exchanges between Chinese and U.S. business communities, and inject more positive energy into the mutually beneficial, sustained and steady China-U.S. economic and trade relations," Ren said.

In his remarks, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng noted that since its establishment 36 years ago, the representative office of CCPIT in the U.S. has served as an important bridge and bond between the Chinese and American business communities.

"We believe that from this new beginning, the representative office will continue to diligently fulfill its responsibilities, promote the mutually beneficial cooperation and enhance bilateral economic and trade ties. It will make even greater contributions to the sound, stable and sustainable development of our bilateral relations," Xie said.

Craig Allen, president of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), said in his remarks that the CCPIT and the USCBC have been partners for 50 years who share a belief that trade and investment, commerce and economic exchanges are "fundamental to the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, and are "the bedrock of peace and stability, not only between U.S. and China, but in the Asia Pacific region."

"I look forward to the next 50 years, when hopefully, our two economies and our two peoples will grow yet more close and bring prosperity to both sides," said Allen.

Cliff Seagroves, the Principal Deputy Director of the Department of State's Office of Foreign Missions, and Charles Freeman, senior vice president for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also made remarks at the opening ceremony.