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Schroeder's Visit to Further Sino-German Trade Relations
The visit of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to China, his third in three years, is expected to further strengthen Sino-German trade relations.
The 47-member commercial delegation accompanying Schroeder to China, consisting leaders of such prominent companies as Siemens, BASF and Bayer, is likely to sign over ten billion US dollars worth of trade and investment contracts with the Chinese side.
The delegation brought with it 26 trade and investment contracts in information technology, electronics technology, biological technology, energy and environmental protection.
BASF, a chemical giant, plans to invest some two billion US dollars to set up a manufacturing plant in Shanghai.
Bayer, another chemical tycoon, is to contribute 3.1 billion U.S. dollars to construct a chemical industry base.
Siemens alone is expected to sign three investment contracts with China, including an electricity transmission project from Guizhou Province in southwest China to south China's Guangdong Province.
German media reported that the delegation also plans to sell 50 Airbus A320 to China with a total worth of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Germany is now China's largest trade partner in Europe. Statistics provided by the Chinese Customs show that two-way trade reached a record-high of 19.7 billion U.S. dollars last year.
China exported some seven billion U.S. dollars to Germany in the first nine months of this year and imported 10.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 2.2 percent and 34 percent respectively on annual basis.
China signed 858 technology transfer contracts with Germany last year valued at 2.8 billion U.S. dollars.
In the first half of this year, China approved 135 German investment projects with a contracted foreign capital of 685.5 million U.S. dollars and an actual investment of 510.8 million U.S. dollars, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Until the end of last year, the number of German projects in the form of foreign direct investment had reached 2,421, with contracted capital of 12.24 billion U.S. dollars and an actual input of 5.85 billion U.S. dollars.
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