BEIJING, April 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent business confidence
survey released by the German Chamber of Commerce in China reveals confidence in the prospects of
China-Germany economic and trade cooperation. Among
the 566 member companies surveyed, 91 percent expressed their
intentions to continue their operations in China, and more than half said they plan to
increase investments in the Chinese market.
Last year, several major German companies, including Siemens,
Mercedes-Benz, BASF, Volkswagen and BMW, continued to increase
investment in China, further
highlighting their confidence in the Chinese market.
"Cooperation between China and
Germany benefits not just the two
sides but also the world at large," Chinese President Xi Jinping
said on Tuesday during a meeting with Chancellor of Germany Olaf
Scholz, who is on a three-day official visit to China.
The more instability in the world, the greater the need for the
two sides to strengthen the resilience and vitality of their
relations, Xi said, calling for joint efforts to keep to the
overall direction of cooperation and development in growing
bilateral ties.
China-Germany cooperation not 'risk' but
opportunity
Scholz visited Sino-German joint venture Bosch Hydrogen
Powertrain Systems (Chongqing)
Co., Ltd. and experienced the assembly of hydrogen fuel cell power
modules, as well as German company Covestro's Asia-Pacific innovation center, during a trip
to China's Chongqing and Shanghai.
"I was impressed by the close and sound cooperation between
German and Chinese businesses," he told Xi.
Economic and trade cooperation has always played a vital role in
China-Germany ties. Germany is paying more attention to expanding
cooperation with China in the
field of innovation, particularly in new energy vehicles
(NEVs).
Through efforts, China has
become a hub for the innovation of NEVs, attracting German
automobile companies to further expand their investment in
China.
A new joint venture set up by Mercedes-Benz Group China Ltd. and
BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. has been registered in Beijing. Volkswagen Group China announced on
April 11 that it will invest
2.5 billion euros (about $2.68 billion) in the expansion of its innovation
hub in Hefei, east China's Anhui
Province, to increase its pace of innovation in China.
Mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Germany is not a "risk," but a guarantee for a
stable bilateral relationship and an opportunity for the future, Xi
told Scholz.
Noting that both China and
Germany are countries built on
industries and both support free trade and economic globalization,
Xi said it is important for the two countries to stay vigilant
against the rise of protectionism, adopt an objective and
dialectical view on the issue of production capacity through a
market and global perspective and based on the laws of economics,
and devote more efforts to the discussion on cooperation.
Solid, sustained progress of bilateral ties
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of an
all-round strategic partnership between the two countries.
The consolidation and development of their relations carries
significance that goes beyond the bilateral scope and has a major
impact on the Eurasian continent and the entire world, Xi
noted.
Bilateral trade volume stood at 253.1
billion euros in 2023, during which China maintained its position as Germany's leading trading partner for the
eighth consecutive year.
Last June, the two countries held the seventh China-Germany
inter-governmental consultation, agreeing to more cooperation in
the fields of climate change response, innovation, advanced
manufacturing and vocational education.
The two sides held the third China-Germany
high-level financial dialogue in Frankfurt last October, reaching 25
cooperation consensuses. On April 11,
2024, the China-Germany Dialogue Forum on Financial
Cooperation was held in Beijing,
aiming to deepen financial cooperation to bring more mutually
beneficial outcomes.
"As long as the two sides uphold mutual respect, seek common
ground while reserving differences, enhance exchanges and mutual
learning, and pursue win-win cooperation, China-Germany
relations will continue to enjoy solid and sustained progress," Xi
said.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2024-04-16/China-Germany-eye-more-resilience-and-vitality-in-ties-1sQJZm3g8da/p.html
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SOURCE CGTN