France, the guest of honor at the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), is using its national pavilion as a platform for its companies to explore new cooperation opportunities in the Chinese market.
Focusing on the theme "Choose France," the pavilion's design highlights unique charm of the European country, showcasing French cultural characteristics and draws inspiration from iconic French landmarks, such as the Arc de Triomphe, successfully catching the eyes of visitors.
The pavilion will also hold a string of activities by centering on three themes including healthcare, sports and the attractiveness of France, in an effort to carry out exchanges with Chinese enterprises.
"France is a creative and innovative country. It has renowned expertise in the field of services. French companies are open to promoting in the Chinese market and cooperating with Chinese companies. It's a very important opportunity for us to showcase France and the expertise of French companies. France had the honor to host athletes and visitors from around the world this summer, and especially a significant Chinese delegation which performed very successfully during these games. This is yet another key area of collaboration between our two nations," said Pascal Gondrand, Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of France in Beijing.
Another scaled-down version of Paris' landmark building in the national pavilion is the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, with French companies putting up booths in the arch of the bridge to showcase their advanced products in the fields of sports, living arts, business event planning and financial services, according to Gondrand.
"It's to connect with people, obviously to connect for potential opportunity of business, also to know better what are the new innovation on the service industry. If they open up more, it's always better for us, so that's good," said Inès Ginon, president of GL events Greater China, a provider of integrated solutions and services for events operating.
France is China's third largest trading partner and third largest source of actual investment in the European Union, and China is France's largest trading partner in Asia and seventh largest in the world.
Over the 60 years since the two countries established diplomatic relations, their economic and trade relations have continued to heat up, and France attaches great importance to cooperating with China in cultural and tourism industry and looks forward to promoting more two-way exchanges and improving the well-being of the people in both countries, Gondrand noted.
Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," the 2024 CIFTIS opened in Beijing on Thursday and will run through Monday.
This year, 10 companies including L'Oreal and Schneider Electronics, are participating in the French Pavilion to showcase their high-quality cooperation with China in event management and operation, cultural and tourism services, green economy, medical and health services, insurance and legal services.
French Pavilion at 2024 CIFTIS aims to explore more partners in China
An official with the World Economic Forum (WEF) has stressed the importance of establishing an adaptable mechanism for dialogue and cooperation that allows the global economy to fully benefit from the development potential of new technologies while managing the associated risks.
Mirek Dusek, one of WEF's managing directors, was speaking on the sidelines of the 2025 WEF Annual Meeting, which commenced in Davos, Switzerland on Monday.
The five-day event has gathered around 3,000 participants from various regions and industries around the world under the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age," highlighting the need for greater collaboration against a backdrop of rapid technological advancements and global divisions.
In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Tuesday, Dusek said WEF is monitoring "two big forces" they believe are changing the world economy.
"On one hand, we are living through quite a unique time in terms of technological advancement and innovation. But on the other hand, of course, we are also tracking forces of fragmentation. We are seeing a more competitive geopolitical landscape, shifting value chains and supply chains, and of course, also social polarization in certain societies around the world," he said.
With the current uncertainties in the world, Dusek stressed the importance of building a suitable platform for dialogue, and ensuring that such a mechanisms is adaptable to respond to the various challenges.
"Given the trends that we are seeing in the global economy, in international relations, that function of bridging and dialogue could not be more important. It's very important that we have mechanisms where we can have dialogue and cooperation, and of course, we also need to be on the front foot of thinking, 'Okay, how do we make sure that the collaborative mechanisms are fit for the 21st century?'" he said, adding that this will be one of the focuses of the current Davos meeting.
Dusek also emphasized China's vital role in promoting global economic growth and technological development, describing the country as a "key actor" in helping the world transition to a new era of tech-driven development.
"Everyone understands that we need to be on our front foot, really thinking creatively around how do we relaunch growth that is inclusive, sustainable. But how do we relaunch growth in this new situation for the world economy? And China plays a very important role in that endeavor, on development, on trade, of course, as well. On technology, I mentioned the theme, 'The Intelligent Age'. What we are trying to communicate with that is that there is a huge opportunity around some of these technologies. What is quite special is that it's not only one technology, but we are seeing, at this moment, whole sets of technologies that are going to market and exponentially changing industry and economy. If we have this huge opportunity around these technologies, how do we design [not only] our dialogue mechanisms, but also our collaborative mechanisms to be able to harness these technologies for the benefit of the world economy while taking care of the risks," he said.
WEF official calls for mechanisms to foster dialogue in new tech era, boost world economy