100 12
Although it has not been officially confirmed yet, in the expectation of the outside world, the lineup of this economic delegation has also been "spoiled" in advance. According to the German Business Daily, a total of 12 German corporate representatives will accompany Scholz on a visit, including the president of Volkswagen, Siemens, Merck Group CEO, Deutsche Bank CEO, BASF CEO and BioNTech CEO, etc.
Companies that do not disclose specific escorts include WACKER Chemical Group, German Bayer Group , BMW , Adidas, heating technology company GeoClimaDesign and baby food manufacturer Xibao . According to the German Business Daily, about 100 people have applied to join the economic delegation.
In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Department of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, analyzed that these are all leading enterprises in all walks of life, and some are also leading enterprises in the world. It can be seen that their expectations for expanding the Chinese market are very high. Scholz once stated that it is impossible to decouple from China. This is both a rational statement and a demand from the enterprise. Under the voices of various interference factors, the government's statement is firm, and the enterprises are even more firm.
Under a lot of noise, Scholz has expressed his support for globalization more than once. Late last month, Ralph Johnning, spokesman for the Hamburg Port Marketing Association of Germany, confirmed that on October 26, the German government approved COSCO Shipping Port to acquire a 24.9% minority stake in the operating company HHLA Container Fudi Terminal based on conditions. Before this, the acquisition once attracted controversy within Germany, but Scholz has always been actively promoting it. Public reports mentioned that Scholz believes that the decision of Chinese capital to be allowed to invest in Hamburg Port Terminal is "good and correct".
Germany's infrastructure construction requires capital investment, and Chinese companies also want to create deeper cooperation with Germany, and cooperation is understandable. This is just a microcosm of China-Germany economic and trade exchanges. Data from the German Federal Statistics Office shows that as of the end of 2021, China has been Germany's largest trading partner for six consecutive years, with bilateral trade volume in 2021 being US$235.12 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.5%.
"Popular" considerations
Companies know the importance of the market better than politicians. Kou Kou, associate professor at the German School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, analyzed to Beijing Business Daily reporters that from the perspective of the industry composition of the delegation, it basically covers the traditional fields of Sino-German economic and trade cooperation, and there may be more cooperation areas in the future. The former includes automobile and mechanical equipment manufacturing, and the latter includes the financial industry.
Automobile manufacturing can be regarded as a "sample" of Sino-German cooperation. It is understood that Volkswagen was the first multinational auto to enter the Chinese market. As early as 1978, Volkswagen began to contact China, thus opening the prelude to Sino-German cooperation. Until 1984, Shanghai Volkswagen Co., Ltd. was officially established.
At the same time, restrictions on foreign-funded enterprises in China's automobile manufacturing field have also been fully relaxed. From the timeline, in 2018, the automobile industry canceled the foreign share ratio restrictions on special-purpose vehicles and new energy vehicle ; in 2020, the foreign share ratio restrictions on commercial vehicles were cancelled; in 2021, the foreign share ratio restrictions on passenger cars were cancelled, and the restrictions on no more than two joint ventures were also cancelled.
To this day, Volkswagen's cooperation with China is still deepening. Last month, Volkswagen just announced that it would invest approximately 2.4 billion euros to jointly establish a new company with Chinese smart computing platform provider Horizon, which focuses on technology development in the field of autonomous driving. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. Bloomberg reported that China is Volkswagen's largest market, with about 40% of Volkswagen delivered to China every year.
Siemens is also looking forward to the Chinese market.2022 coincides with the 150th year that Siemens has entered the Chinese market. In June this year, Siemens' world's first native digital factory was officially put into operation in Nanjing. It is reported that after the new factory is put into production, the production capacity will be increased by nearly 2 times, the production efficiency will be increased by 20%, the flexible production capacity will be increased by 30%, and the product launch time will be shortened by 20%.
Adidas is no exception. In 2021, when setting the company's plan for the next five years, Adidas listed Greater China as one of the three major strategic key markets. However, according to the financial report data for the third quarter of this year, Adidas' sales in Greater China are still weak, with revenue declines for six consecutive quarters.
Kou Kou analyzed that in recent years, China's manufacturing level has been continuously improving, and China and Germany have also formed a certain degree of competitiveness in the international markets of some industries, but overall, complementarity is still greater than competitiveness. On the one hand, China still has some room for development in the high-end manufacturing industry, especially in the field of high-end spare parts manufacturing. On the other hand, compared with manufacturing, China's service industry is relatively low, and for German companies, China itself is a large market.
New imagination
Finance may be an important focus for China-Germany future economic and trade cooperation. In recent years, the first foreign-owned -controlled securities company, the first foreign-owned life insurance company, the first foreign-owned wholly-owned futures company, the first foreign-owned wholly-owned public fund and other "first companies" have been born one after another, witnessing the opening of China's financial industry.
In March this year, Deutsche Bank (China) Co., Ltd. announced that it had successfully connected to China Securities Depository and Clearing Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch , becoming the first EU bank to support qualified overseas investors (QFI) to conduct stock trading on Beijing Stock Exchange .
In addition to finance, China-Germany economic and trade cooperation will also open up new areas. Public information shows that BioNTech has been studying cancer vaccines based on mRNA. The global epidemic emergency has caused the company to turn to the production of the new crown vaccine . The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed and produced by BioNTech with Pfizer's in the United States is also known as one of the most successful vaccines in the new crown epidemic.
In the middle of this year, BioNtech updated the progress of clinical research on the new crown mRNA vaccine conducted in China. Clinical information shows that BioNTech's Phase II clinical trial of the new crown vaccine has been completed on January 9 this year.
, which is also the pharmaceutical field, Bayer has already seen the potential of the Chinese market first. The fifth China International Import Expo is about to open. Recently, Gao Yong, Vice President of Public and Government Affairs and Sustainable Development of Bayer China, mentioned to the media that China has become one of the most important strategic pillars of Bayer's global business, it is Bayer's largest market for prescription drugs, the second largest market for healthy consumer goods, and one of the top ten markets for crop science in the world.
In Kou Kou's view, economic and trade relations are the "ballast stone" of Sino-German relations. Compared with other European countries, China and Germany's economic and trade relations are relatively tighter. For some large companies, although they will be affected by certain external forces, they still need to consider economic interests. Even from the perspective of supply chain security, they must weigh the pros and cons. Judging from the current situation, they still hope to increase their investment in China. After all, in the long run, economic laws are not easy to violate.
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Beijing Business Daily reporter | Tao Feng Yang Yuehan
