China, India can build trust: Li (2)

But India has frequently expressed concerns over the trade deficit with China and has been an aggressive initiator of trade-remedy cases targeting China in past years.

In 2012, China's trade surplus with India was $28.87 billion, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The two countries decided to set up three groups under their Joint Economic Group to advance the bilateral service trade, trade planning and trade statistical analysis.

Long Guoqiang, director of foreign economic relations at the State Council Development Research Center, a high-level government think tank, said, "The two countries are more mutually complementary than they are mutually competitive. And there is large potential for their cooperation."

The proposed China-India-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor would provide an innovative economic link between East Asia and South Asia, which could create huge demand for China and India and strengthen their economic growth, Long said.

"As the two biggest economies among emerging markets, China-India mutual development based on industrialization and urbanization will lead fast expansion of the BRICS countries and drive the recovery of the global economy," he added.

Wang Haifeng, an expert at the Institute of Foreign Economics under the National Development and Reform Commission, said strengthening mutual trust between the two countries will help boost China's direct investment in Indian infrastructure construction projects, such as railways and airports. Meanwhile, India's high-tech and service exports to China are likely to increase.

"Mutual trust is also the basis to removing trade friction between the two fast-growing economies. Once the obstacle is cleared, it will be very easy to achieve the goal of $100 billion bilateral trade value by the year 2015," Wang said.

Premier Li wrote in an article published by The Hindu newspaper on Monday, "China's development promises opportunities for India, and India's development promises opportunities for China. Our common development will benefit people of the two countries and offer the world more and better opportunities."

India and China have withdrawn troops from camps a few meters apart in a Himalayan desert, ending a three-week standoff.

During his recent meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in Beijing, Li said friendly cooperation is central to China-India relations, and common interests outweigh differences.