Spanish and Chinese firms signed deals worth about one billion euros ($1.4 billion) during a visit to Beijing by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, he told reporters on Wednesday. Spain's Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA, one of the world's top wind turbine groups, signed deals with both China Resources Power Holdings Co and China Datang Corp. Renewable Power Co to provide a total of 300 turbines.
Each company will get 150 turbines with a total capacity of 300 megawatts. Gamesa also signed a strategic co-operation pact with China Longyuan Power Group Ltd in the area of wind power.
Spanish banking giant Banco Santander meanwhile signed a deal to buy equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE. Spain's Indra will send a flight simulator to China and help train helicopter pilots, while auto parts makers Grupo Antolin, Maxam and Ringo Valvulas will open branches in China, the world's largest car market. "China should be the priority of our economic diplomacy, which is a more and more important element" of Spain's foreign policy, Zapatero told a news conference at his country's embassy in Beijing before heading to Singapore.