SHANGHAI - Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met the leaders of Apple and SK Hynix Inc , the ministry said on Saturday, ahead of major business conferences in the coming week.

In the Friday meetings with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Hynix President Kwak Noh-Jung, Wang discussed the tech companies' development in China, the ministry said in a statement.

Foreign CEOs are visiting for meetings from Sunday to Friday, including the China Development Forum and the Boao forum.

Cook opened Apple's newest store in Shanghai on Thursday, as the phone maker battles falling iPhone sales in China and rising competition from domestic rivals such as Huawei.

Wang told Cook that China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is a stabilising force for bilateral relations and that China was willing to work with the United States to create a fair, stable and predictable environment for business cooperation between the two countries, the ministry said.

The Chinese diplomat and Kwak also discussed cooperation in the semiconductor industry chain between China and South Korea, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsrooms; Editing by Gerry Doyle and William Mallard)