BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China and Nordic countries have broadened their trade and economic cooperation in recent years, with expanded scale and improved quality, the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

During the first eight months of this year, trade volume between China and five Nordic countries, including Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, reached 35.44 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.7 percent year on year, Wang Yupeng, a commerce ministry official, told a press conference in Beijing.

Wang said that high value-added products such as computers, communication equipment, pharmaceuticals, ships, autos and their parts constituted the mainstay of bilateral trade.

Given the current momentum, annual trade between China and the five Nordic countries is expected to exceed 50 billion U.S. dollars this year, Wang said.

For China, the Nordic countries are important sources of foreign investment and destinations for outbound investment, official data showed.

The cumulative direct investment from the five Nordic countries in China has exceeded 15 billion U.S. dollars so far. In the first eight months of this year, China's direct investment in these countries amounted to approximately 1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for over one-fifth of China's total investment in Europe.

"We look forward to working with the Nordic countries to uphold the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, maintain the stability of the China-Europe industrial and supply chains, and jointly oppose protectionism in the field of trade and investment," Wang said.

The 2024 China-Nordic Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum will be held this week in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, according to the press conference.