Chinese premier meets British chancellor

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in Beijing, Sept.21, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met Monday with British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, in China for the seventh China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD).

China and Britain, both important countries with global influence, should strengthen economic and financial cooperation, which is important for financial stability and world economic recovery, said Li. He also suggested expanded cooperation on third-party markets.

Li briefed Osborne on the fluctuations of China's stock markets in the past few months. The Chinese government has taken measures to stabilize the markets and guard against systemic risks, said Li.

He said the government will improve management of the market and promote openness, transparency, long-term stability and healthy development.

China is improving the central parity of exchange rate mechanism of the RMB to speed up the marketization of the regime, said Li.

There is no reason for the yuan's depreciation to be sustained, and China does not want a currency war, said the premier, appreciating that Britain was the first western country to issue a RMB sovereign bond.

Li asked Britain to continue to support the inclusion of the RMB in the SDR currency basket in the IMF's upcoming SDR review.

Osborne said Britain is pleased to see strengthened cooperation between the two countries and is willing to expand mutual investments and major projects cooperation with China.

"We want Britain to be China's best partner in the West," he said.

Britain supports the IMF quota reform and the inclusion of the RMB into the SDR, he said, hoping to strengthen the link between financial markets of the two countries and make London an offshore center for yuan trading.

Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and Osborne co-chaired the seventh China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue on Monday in Beijing.