In contrast to the projects in agricultural production, fisheries and agroprocessing that were the mainstay of the first ten years of EU-China cooperation, new funding is expected to embrace programmes in legal and judicial affairs, ' village governance' and environmental technology, with two poverty focused integrated rural development programmes also in the pipeline. Taking into account both trading issues and issues of global security, arms and immigration control, the communiqu finds that Europe stands to benefit from sustained economic growth in China provided that growth occurs in a climate of political and social stability.
Stability is seen as most likely to be secured by further economic and social reform.
At the same time, the document expresses concern that foreign direct investment in China from Europe lags behind that originating from Japan and America. Since the 1985 signing of the EC-China Trade and Cooperation Agreement much of the largest technical and financial assistance projects have been in the dairy industry. Two continuing projects focus on land management and reclamation. The latest initiatives in the rural sector are two multi-million Ecu integrated development programmes. A second integrated project is now being designed for Honghe prefecture in Yunnan province.