Thursday, November 10 2005 16:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: China, which is keen to be associated with SAARC in some form, today (Nov 10, 2005) lauded the grouping for its contribution to the economic and social development of the region and expressed willingness to cooperate with it to enhance common prosperity.

"We have taken note of the upcoming (November 12-13) meeting of the SAARC (in Dhaka) and wish full success of the meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters here.

Since its establishment over 20 years ago, SAARC has played an important role in the economic and social development in the region, Liu commented.

"As a friendly neighbor of the SAARC countries, we sincerely hope that it will achieve greater success in the process of regional cooperation," he said, adding that China is willing to cooperate with the SAARC to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation and common prosperity.

Foreign Secretaries of SAARC countries, including India's Shyam Saran, had yesterday agreed in Dhaka to set up a technical group to work out objective guidelines for responding to requests from China and other friendly countries which were keen on economic cooperation with the seven-member regional bloc.