China and Venezuela on August 24 inked eight agreements on wide-ranging topics, a sign of stronger ties between the two countries.

Among the eight agreements, two are related to future expansion of bilateral energy cooperation.

In the two agreements, the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and the PDVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan energy company, agreed to establish joint venture and launch joint development on the Venezuelan oil fields, according to the information from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The agreements, which ranged from trade and energy to infrastructure construction and tourism, were signed after Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias.

"I'm very satisfied with the cooperation with China in the oil and oil chemistry fields", Chavez told the reporters after the signing ceremony, vowing to increase the oil exports to China to 50,000 barrels per day in the very near future.

During his talks with Hu, Chavez said that the Venezuelan side will make concerted efforts with the Chinese side to implement the proposal and strengthen cooperation in bilateral and multi-lateral areas so as to push forward the continuous development of bilateral strategic partnership.

The Venezuela side hopes to further bilateral cooperation in such fields as energy, railway construction, telecommunications, agriculture, tourism, culture and education, and build the bilateral high-level mixed commission into an important platform for enhancing bilateral cooperation, Chavez noted.

As this year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Venezuelan strategic partnership, Hu also offered a four-point proposal.

1

2

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)