Scotland and China can deepen cooperation in new energy technologies, especially offshore wind power, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said.
"China already has strong onshore wind power technologies, and we can now cooperate on offshore wind power as well as other marine powers like wave and tidal power," Salmond said in a recent interview, emphasizing that Scotland has a coastline of 14,000 km but only five million people.
He said future cooperation could be based on past achievements, as the two sides have achieved "spectacular" successes in areas such as engineering, petrochemicals and textiles.
Several Scottish companies have opened subsidiaries in China or have built joint ventures with Chinese companies, and Chinese companies such as PetroChina have also invested in Scotland, Salmond said.
"But we indeed want to have more relationships with Chinese companies, to have more mutual investment between each other. We want to help supply clean, green electricity in China," the minister said.
He stressed that cooperation between China and Scotland should be based on "win-win situations," or on the Scottish thinker Adam Smith's principle of "enlightened self-interest."
As for the government's role in the development of clean energy, Salmond said the government needs to provide a solid platform, such as giving certainty in price signals.
Scotland's local government aims to develop up to 10 gigawatts of offshore wind power in Scottish waters by 2020, which will fully satisfy electricity demand in Scotland, the minister said.
Salmond will visit China in early December in a bid to strengthen cooperation between Chinese and Scottish companies.(Source: Xinhua)