Closer connections sought between Chinese and European businesses

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will host the China Europe CEO Summit at the fourth China International Import Expo, which aims to be a catalyst for China-Europe business collaboration.

According to the organizers, this year's summit will highlight green and digital partnerships. It aims to encourage and promote enterprises to innovate new ways of cooperation and make greater contributions to the development of China-Europe economic and trade relations.

ICBC will launch a prerelease of a research report called Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality in Chinese and European Enterprises. A service brand of integrated financial services supporting foreign trade by ICBC will also be debuted at the summit.

The bank's executives said that the summit will be an open platform for announcing cooperative outcomes and will invite Chinese and European enterprises to sign cooperation agreements.

This year's summit will introduce a new partner－the China-Europe Business Council.

Established in April this year, CEBC, with the aim of deepening China-Europe economic and trade relations, has 52 founding enterprises, 29 of which are Fortune Global 500 companies.

Vice-Minister of Commerce and China International Trade Representative, Yu Jianhua addressed the inaugural ceremony of CEBC on April 29.

Yu said that commercial cooperation between China and Europe is mutually beneficial by nature.

According to Yu, in 2020, the volume of the bilateral trade in goods and services approached $1 trillion while aggregated two-way investment topped $250 billion. China and Europe share common interests and similar grounds in such areas as the joint response to the pandemic, economic recovery, safeguarding the multilateral trading system and coping with climate change.

The mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Europe is not only good for China and Europe, but for the world as a whole, he said.

The introduction of the CEBC in collaboration with enterprises will inject more positive energy into the China-Europe relationship, reduce fluctuation and uncertainty in the world, and add certainty and stability to trade and economic ties, Yu said.

He added that the CEBC can pool wisdom and forge a consensus among Chinese and European businesses, build a bridge of trust, cooperation, green growth, digital cooperation and friendship. He said it can also take the lead in maintaining the overall bilateral commercial cooperation, support the multilateral trading system, step up practical cooperation across the board and play a positive role in making business cooperation bigger and deliver more benefits to both peoples.

The bank said that the CEBC's joining of the China Europe CEO Summit adds extra power to the collaboration between Chinese and European enterprises, and brings new growth opportunities.

In 2019, more than 100 CEOs from China and 15 European countries participated in the summit. More than 1,500 people took part in on-site business matchmaking events, and more than 470 cooperation intentions were reached.

In 2020, the summit issued an initiative supporting China-Europe trade and investment collaboration signed by 150 Chinese and European enterprises.