Beijing: China on June 23 announced a $ 500 million corpus for enhanced investment in India even as the two countries signed nine agreements covering a wide variety of subjects, including simplification of visa procedures.

The Chinese side conveyed its decision on the corpus which will further enhance this country's investments in India, during the discussions between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao.

Vajpayee assured Wen that the Chinese investments in India would be on the same terms as offered to investment from other foreign countries.

The Chinese Premier was full of praise for India's booming economy and said that India's remarkable development had contributed to rejuvenation of Asia.

Besides the agreement on simplifying visa procedures, the agreements signed after the talks also includes a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-operation between the law ministries of the two countries for close cooperation in the judicial field and one on strengthening of mutual cooperation in education. The two countries will discuss mutual recognition of academic degrees.

PTI