German Chamber of Commerce hopeful for China-Germany future business relations

German Chamber of Commerce in China (GCCC) expects to see China-Germany trade volume double by 2010, said GCCC Chairman Alfred Wewers Sunday in Beijing.

Wewers, also the chief China representative of ThyssenKrupp, a world leading producer of steel and industrial goods and services, said China has been making much progress in optimizing trade and investment environment in recent years. Trade barriers have been vanishing gradually and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules are better implemented.

When on the impending German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's visit to China, Wewers said the fact that German chancellor visits China every year itself is a great evidence of political stability of bilateral relations.

"The industry community are quite content to the fact that a good framework of Germany-China cooperation has been established for the cooperation in various fields on which industry sector could rely," Wewers noted.

Wewers said that bilateral trade is growing in a rapid pace in recent years.

According to the statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Germany has been China's biggest trading partner in Europe in the past 30 consecutive years. The two sides maintained a double-digit trade growth in recent years.

The two-way trade volume first recorded more than 40 billion US dollars last year. From this January to October, the bilateral trade grew to 43.6 billion US dollars, among which, Chinese exportation valuing at 18.61 billion US dollars, up 35.7 percent over same time of last year, the MOC statistics showed.

"Having a balanced flow of goods and services means we have found what goods and service we need from China and in another way what China best needs from Germany," Wewers said.

In this German entrepreneur's perspective, the advantage of Chinese market is that it is huge. A population of 1.3 billion is a good reason for German companies to seek out business in China, said Wewers.

By the end of this October, according to MOC statistics, 3,994 Germany-funded investment projects have been established in China with the German companies investing 9.79 billion US dollars. During the same time, Chinese companies already signed 7,785 contracts of technology transfer, worth 28.4 billion US dollars.

Wewers said that Germany and China should further their trade and investment cooperation in fields of energy-conservation, environmental protection, and labor-intensified service. The country's should also promote scientific research cooperation in areas like information technology and advanced vocational education.

Wewers noted that the German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have contributed 49 percent of German GDP, also play a increasingly important role in China's growing economy.

Germany now has about 1,800 SMEs establishing businesses in China. The GCCC hopes that better business framework and conditions will be established for them, because currently SMEs do not have enough financial strength and potential to compete with big conglomerates.

Source: Xinhua