The roundtable for European enterprises was held in Qingdao on April 19. The conference is hosted by Qingdao Municipal Government and European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, sponsored by Qingdao Bureau of Commerce. Zhang Hui, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, attended the conference and delivered a speech, and Wang Bo, Standing Committee Member of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee and Vice Mayor, presided over the meeting. Jens Eskelund (Yan Ci), President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, attended the event and delivered a speech.

At the conference, Wang Zhijun, Director of Qingdao Bureau of Commerce, made a city promotionin terms of Qingdao's key cooperation areas and related policies with Europe. Rui Coelho (Li Ruihua), President and CEO of Air Liquide China, Bram Claes (Pang Borui), Vice President of Atlas Copco Group of Sweden, Soren Leth Johannsen, CEO of Maersk Container Industry Company of Denmark, Giamberto Giraldo (Jiang Baide), Representative of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank in Qingdao, General manager of Qingdao Yicai Fund Distribution Co., Ltd., Pablo Rodriguez (Rong Yihang), General Manager of Ibarmia Innovatek, S.L.U. (China) Co., Ltd., Eleonora Campidelli (Kang Aili), General Manager of Qingdao Bitron Ind China Co., Ltd., Kai Askan Bunte (Pu Enti), Chairman of German GERB (Qingdao) Vibration Control Co., Ltd., and other representatives of European-funded enterprises (institutions) attended the conference, and had an exchange discussion on the business situation and future development direction in Qingdao. The representatives of relevant departments of the Qingdao municipal government, districts and cities (functional areas) and state-owned enterprises attended the conference.

At the conference, the participating enterprises spoke freely, fully affirmed the business environment of Qingdao and the attitude of government departments at all levels to serve enterprises, and put forward a series of constructive suggestions and opinions on the future economic and social development of Qingdao. The participating enterprises agreed that through the roundtable, they have further understood Qingdao's business environment and policies and measures to attract foreign investment, which strengthened their confidence in investment and development in Qingdao. They are willing to continue to understand Qingdao, invest in Qingdao, and seek more development opportunities here.

Jens Eskelund (Yan Ci), President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, introduced the investment of EU enterprises in China. He said that EU enterprises should deeply understand the opportunities brought to enterprises by China's newly proposed new productive forces, strengthen cooperation with China in the field of new productive forces and promote cooperation in the field of decarbonization. In addition, European enterprises have long-term experience in the European market research related policies, and there are a number of technical initiatives can become the basis for strengthening cooperation between China and the EU. At the same time, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China is planning to establish a branch in Qingdao, aiming to enhance communication with the local enterprises and seek common paths for development..

Wang Zhijun, Director of Qingdao Bureau of Commerce, made a key promotion on Qingdao's investment environment from the aspect of Qingdao's industrial development. He said that the EU is an important trading partner and source of foreign investment in Qingdao. In 2023, the total import and export trade volume between Qingdao and European countries was up to 164,481 billion yuan, with a 9.2% year-on-year growth. By the end of 2023, Europe has invested 1,568 projects in Qingdao, with actual utilization of foreign investment of 5.9 billion dollars. Currently, Qingdao is vigorously implementing the revitalization and development of the real economy and has launched 24 key industrial chains. There is broad space for cooperation between the two sides in advanced manufacturing, high-end chemical industry, automobile manufacturing, electronic information industry, new energy and new materials and other fields. Given this view, Qingdao hopes to expand the field of industrial cooperation with European enterprises, and also will provide better service guarantee and policy support for these enterprises.

Zhang Hui, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Qingdao Municipal Committee, said in his summary speech that economic and trade cooperation with Europe has always been the focus of Qingdao's opening up, and the two sides have maintained close and friendly exchanges over the years. It is hoped that European enterprises will actively expand their investments in Qingdao, continue to deepen trade cooperation, act as Qingdao's publicity ambassador, investment consultant and city spokesperson, publicize and promote Qingdao to entrepreneur friends they are familiar with, provide Qingdao with more information on enterprise investment, positively boost the investment attraction by business or industrial chain, and promote more multinational companies and upstream and downstream supporting enterprises to invest and develop in Qingdao.

In the next step, Qingdao will deeply integrate into the overall situation of high-level opening up, and continue to create a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized first-class business environment, so that enterprises from various countries, including the European enterprises, can invest and develop in Qingdao with confidence. The first is to further strengthen the policy support. In the near future, the Several Measures to Further Optimize the Foreign Investment Environment and Make Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment will be issued, and policies and measures will be introduced to support foreign-funded enterprises in Qingdao to increase capital and expand production, encourage innovation and research and development, protect intellectual property rights, and facilitate permanent residence applications. The second is to further do a good job in enterprise services, continue to strengthen the visit and research, make good use of “the stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment service platform”, establish a collective consultation and research mechanism, solve the various demands of enterprises by "one enterprise with one policy" and drawing lessons from one instance to provide the best service for the high-quality development of foreign enterprises. The third is to further keep the communication channels open and smooth. With the help of the Qingdao roundtable mechanism for foreign enterprises, it can help the two sides exchange problems face to face, hold a cheerful conversation to make friends and co-share opportunities. Besides, organize a series of activities for communication and exchange with foreign enterprises in order to help deepen bilateral cooperation and serve the development and growth of foreign enterprises in Qingdao.