Chinese, Japanese entrepreneurs, former officials stress post-COVID-19 cooperation

BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The sixth round of Sino-Japanese Entrepreneurs and Former High-level Officials Dialogue was held via video link Wednesday, with members calling for joint efforts to ramp up post-COVID-19 economic cooperation.

The dialogue covered the economic situations of the two countries, the impacts of COVID-19 on their economies, the global economy and business activities, digital transformation, trade and investment, and sustainable development.

Since the beginning of this year, COVID-19 has become the biggest challenge facing all mankind, the Chinese representatives said, adding that all countries should work together to combat the pandemic, which is still raging.

The Chinese representatives said that, based on the principles of win-win cooperation, trust and consultation, the two countries should focus on post-COVID-19 development and improve the quality of Sino-Japanese cooperation, with greater efforts on post-COVID-19 cooperation on regional economic integration and digital transformation, as well as tackling the common challenges related to aging and green development shared by both sides.

The Japanese representatives said the two countries have a sound basis for cooperation in response to COVID-19 and both sides should uphold an objective, scientific and impartial position, strengthen exchanges on information, policy and technology, and carry out cooperation on virus pathogenesis, pathogen detection, specific drugs and vaccine research and development.

The health authorities and infectious-disease prevention and control agencies of the two countries should be encouraged to establish special channels of communication and cooperation to promote international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19, they said.

A joint statement was issued after the dialogue, calling on the international community to strengthen confidence, work together to deal with COVID-19, boost international cooperation and safeguard global public-health security.

Launched in November 2015, the dialogue was jointly sponsored by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), with five rounds held in Tokyo and Beijing.