As part of China and the European Union's efforts to foster closer economic ties, a new EU-China intellectual property rights cooperation project was launched on Thursday.

Created by China's Ministry of Commerce and the Delegation of the European Union to China, the third phase of the project is based on a 2007 agreement between the European Union and China that secured 16.275 million euros in joint funding.

"In the past, China was forced to take efforts to protect its IPR. But right now, as an increasing number of Chinese businesses go global, they are faced with IPR problems. We have to pay more attention to IPR protection," said Zhang Xiangchen, assistant minister of commerce.

Carmen Cano, deputy head of the EU Delegation, said the new project is a further commitment from both sides to provide a better environment for Chinese companies doing business in the EU and for EU companies in China.

China's insufficient IPR protection efforts have been a source of complaint by foreign businesses.

"There is still room for the Chinese government to make a greater commitment to the protection of IPR," said Flavio Zanonato, Italian minister of economic development, in Beijing on Wednesday.

Intellectual property infringements and counterfeiting have been a recent problem for China and Italy.

"We are faced with similar problems in other countries," said Zanonato. "Currently, I think the most effective way to protect IPR is for Italian companies to keep updating products to win the market."??