Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping has ended his visit to Ireland at a forum on trade and investment in Dublin.
The event, hosted by Enterprise Ireland, was attended by representatives from 250 businesses from both Ireland and China. A number of trade agreements between Irish and Chinese companies were signed.
Mr Xi is expected to become the next president of China later this year and Ireland is the only EU country he has attended on this trip.
Among the deals completed today, Dublin-based renewable energy company Mainstream Renewable Power agreed a 50-50 joint venture with Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology.
The Chinese company is the world's fourth-largest wind turbine maker, and its subsidiary Goldwind USA will supply turbines for the first phase of a wind farm project in northern Chile.
Speaking to delegates at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham in Dublin today, Mr Xi said China was now Ireland's biggest trading partner in Asia.
He said that by the end of 2011, Ireland had invested in 241 projects in China and although Chinese investment in Ireland was a late starter, it had been growing fast.
Mr Xi said the international situation had been undergoing financial changes and he said world economic recovery would be an uphill struggle.
He said China would be a reliable friend to Ireland and other European countries which were working towards recovery. He also said China would continue to support the efforts of the IMF, the ECB and the EC in addressing Europe's financial problems.
China moves to boost bank lending
China's central bank has cut the amount of cash the country's banks must hold in reserves.
The move announced on Saturday will boost lending capacity by an estimated 350-400 billion yuan ($55.6-$63.5 billion) in a bid to crank up credit creation as the world's second-biggest economy faces a fifth successive quarter of slowing growth.
The People's Bank of China is on the course of gentle policy easing to cushion the world's fastest-growing major economy against global problems such as Europe's debt crisis.
The PBOC cut big banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage ponts to 20.5%, effective from next Friday, after repeatedly defying market expectations for such a move after it first cut the ratio last November.
China's economy is likely to slow to an annual growth rate of 8.2% in the first quarter from 8.9% in the previous quarter, according to a poll of economists by Reuters.
Data for January came in below market expectations, with exports contracting 0.5% from a year earlier and money supply growth falling to 12.4% from the previous month's 13.6%.
