Madrid, May 25 (IANS/EFE) Spanish and Chinese companies have signed five cooperation agreements and nine sales contracts for Spanish goods being bought by the Asian giant valued at around 500 million euros ($626.8 million).

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the speaker of China's parliament, Wu Bangguo, presided at the signing ceremony Thursday.

Rajoy thanked China for its support - China is a large holder of Spanish debt - and Wu expressed both his confidence in Spain and his desire for the economy in the Eurozone to become more stable, Spanish government sources said.

The most important agreement was the one signed by Telefonica and Chinese firm ZTE whereby the latter becomes the Spanish firm's sole provider of visual control equipment over the coming years.

The new contracts will strengthen bilateral cooperation in the economic realm and spur trade between the two counties which last year reached 22 billion euros ($27.58 billion), the Spanish government said in a communique.

Over the past two years, Spanish exports to China have increased annually by 30 percent.

--IANS/EFE

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