Cooperation is crucial for the development of the automotive industries in China and the European Union (EU), said Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday.
Wang made the remarks while chairing the China-EU Electric Vehicle (EV) Industrial Chain Enterprises Roundtable, which was attended by leaders from nearly 30 European and Chinese EV, power battery, and parts sectors, as well as related industry associations.
Over the past 40 years, Wang said, automotive cooperation between China and the EU has yielded fruitful results and become deeply integrated.
EU companies have flourished in China, driving the development of China's automotive industrial chain, and China has also provided an open market and a fair competitive environment for European companies.
As for the EU's anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs, Wang said that China will negotiate until the final moments.
Such a move by the EU, Wang noted, will not only hinder China-EU cooperation in the automotive industry and undermine Chinese companies' confidence in investing in Europe, but will also severely affect global cooperation in addressing climate change and significantly damage the multilateral trade order based on WTO rules.
As the automotive industries of China and the EU are now at a critical crossroads, openness and cooperation are the best options, Wang said.
China has developed through reform and opening up and will never stop its opening up, Wang said. He noted the Chinese government firmly supports China-EU business cooperation, opposes "decoupling and breaking chains," and is committed to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and EU companies operating in China.
Cooperation is key to Chinese, EU auto industries: Chinese commerce minister
The recently-approved action plan for stabilizing foreign investment has attracted a new wave of foreign-funded projects across China.
Formulated to ensure stable foreign investment in 2025, the action plan was approved by a State Council executive meeting last month.
Under the plan, China will support pilot regions in effectively implementing opening-up policies related to such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, providing whole-journey services for foreign-invested projects in these sectors.
In a foreign-funded intelligent manufacturing factory in Suzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province, engineers are making final adjustments to a vehicle-mounted display production line with an annual production capacity of 650,000 units, which is expected to contribute an annual increase in output value of 1.3 billion yuan (about 179.5 million U.S. dollars).
"In addition to the new production line, we will invest an additional 50 million yuan (about 6.9 million U.S. dollars) or so to upgrade the old production line this year, which can also realize automated and digitized production," said Ge Fengchen, general manager of Harman Suzhou branch.
In a smart factory of a foreign-funded elevator production company in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, two intelligent production lines have just been put into use.
In addition to the Guangzhou factory, this intelligent production line is also scheduled to be put into use in its factories in Shanghai, Tianjin and Chengdu.
"This production line integrates a central control system, a joint control system, and an automatic positioning system. While using the (digital) twin technology on the management platform and automated inspection of the entire process, the production line is able to predict and prevent possible failures," said Jia Yuhui, president of Hitachi Elevator (China) Co., Ltd.
In January alone, a total of 4,229 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide with 97.59 billion yuan of paid-in foreign investment, increasing by 27.5 percent from December last year, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce.
"In recent years, the utilized foreign investment in the park has maintained a high growth, and a number of high-quality projects have been launched. The paid-in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year is expected to reach 1 billion U.S. dollars, maintaining growth momentum," said Liu Hua, vice chairman of the Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.
China's favorable policy attracts new wave of foreign-funded projects
