German Businesses Prove Money Spinners in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 02, 2003

German Businesses Prove Money Spinners in China

In general meaning, Germans are believed to have a down-to-earth manner in business affairs, whichhas helped them score a lot in China.

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In general meaning, Germans are believed to have a down-to-earth manner in business affairs, which has helped them score a lot in China.

Each day in the first ten months of 2002, China imported an average of 40 million US dollars of products and technology from Germany while exporting 27 million US dollars worth to the latter,up by 17.2 percent and 13.6 percent year-on-year respectively.

The facts speak even louder than the figures. One does not have to look hard to see the signs of increased Sino-German trade and economic ties. With their sophisticated yet durable products, down-to-earth German businesses have proved themselves money spinners on the huge Chinese market.

In China's economic hub Shanghai, joint-venture vehicles such as Santana, Passat, and the latest Polo have become a showcase for this modern oriental city.

With the Pudong-based Siemens production base continuing to expand, billboards advertising the brand name mobile phones are mushrooming in every corner of the metropolis.

Following hypermarket Metro, building-material dealer OBI has also won the hearts of Shanghai residents.

Arguably the latest example is the just-inaugurated Shanghai Transrapid Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) Line, the first-ever commercial line of its kind to employ German technology, which once again threw Sino-German economic cooperation into the spotlight.

Apart from such tangible products and technology, German business people have also set up a huge exhibition, one of the sectors they are best at, in the city's booming Pudong district.

Teaming up with Chinese, they are even building a German-style residential town in the northwestern part of the city, capable of accommodating 80,000 people.

In an industrial area, chemical giant BASF is setting up two world-class projects involving an investment of 1.5 billion Euros.

Compared with other Western investors, German companies are performing well, if not the best, in China. Its status as China's biggest trade and technological partner in Europe is being solidified.

Chairman Jurgen Satrube from BASF's board of executive directors believed a China with sustained economic growth was bringing global investors more opportunities. He attributed the success of many German enterprises in China to their "strategic insights."

By the end of September 2002, Germany had invested 412 projects in Shanghai, which involved 3.012 billion US dollars in contractual volume, taking up five percent of the city's total. Shanghai has set up its second European center in Frankfurt, following London, to attract foreign investment.

Statistics indicate that China's machinery and electronic products, textiles, furniture, toys and chemical products are well received among German importers.

Experts believe economic globalization and China's accession to the World Trade Organization may mean more and more inexpensive quality "made-in-China" products get access to Germany and other advanced countries, benefiting Germans and people around the world.

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