Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit to China, the first by an Indian prime minister in five years, seeks to inject new vitality into the sometimes strained relationship between the two nations, whose booming economies are increasingly driving world trade. Together, their population of nearly 2.4 billion accounts for one-third of humanity.
"Our two countries will need to work together to ensure that we contribute to ... the economic resurrection and the interrelations of Asia," he said at a business conference here.
Singh was due to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao later Monday following a formal welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, the hulking seat of the national legislature beside Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.
Representatives of some of India's biggest companies attended the conference, including salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, steel maker ArcelorMittal SA, and Jet Airways, which is seeking to open service on a Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route.
Singh said India was willing to work with China to simplify regulations and remove some trade barriers.
"Our two economies are becoming the engines of the economic growth and must use our natural and human resources, technologies and capital for the common benefit of our people of our region and indeed of the world as a whole," he said.
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 On Sunday, Singh met with members of the Indian business community, who complained about China's $9 billion trade surplus with India and a lack of investment opportunities for Indian businesses in China, according to The Times of India daily.
Singh has presided over an unprecedented expansion in contacts between India and China since taking office in 2004, with bilateral trade growing to $37 billion last year. Direct flights have fueled growing numbers of visitors between the two countries, and their militaries late last year staged joint drills for the first time.
The growing links come despite lingering suspicions dating from a short but bloody border war fought by the two in 1962 and the still-unresolved boundary dispute.
But India has expressed concern about China's cultivation of relations with Myanmar, Pakistan and other Indian neighbors, while Beijing is believed to be watching developments in New Delhi's increasingly close relationship with Washington.
During his visit, Singh was also due to meet President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party's No. 2 ranking official, Wu Bangguo. He planned to address a government think tank and co-preside over a ceremony marking the founding of a joint medical team.
[Associated Press; By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN]
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