The European Union should look to learn from China and tap into the various advantages offered by the vast Chinese market across a broad spectrum of fast-developing industries, according to Slovakia's Deputy Prime Minister Denisa Sakova.
Sakova is currently in Shanghai to attend the seventh China International Import Expo (CIIE), which is running through to Nov. 10 under the theme of "New Era, Shared Future," and has attracted participants from 152 countries, regions and international organizations.
In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the opening day of the expo on Tuesday, Sakova said Slovakia is looking forward to future cooperation with China and noted there are many areas for potential collaboration including in the energy, automotive and infrastructure industries.
"We have to learn something from China within the European Union, and we would like to customize it for the European market. China is the biggest market and you have 1.4 billion people and it [has] really good potential to import everything. Also there is a potential for industry, for the automotive industry. Of course, there is the area of renewables, energy grid, traffic infrastructure. There are several potential areas for our cooperation and collaboration in the future," said Sakova in an interview on opening day of the expo on Tuesday.
First held in 2018, the CIIE is the world's first national-level exhibition dedicated to import. This year, the event has achieved a new record with 297 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders in attendance, which experts say signals confidence in the Chinese market amid a sluggish global economic recovery.
EU should learn from China, explore potential cooperation: Slovakian deputy PM
The Trade and Investment Matchmaking Conference of the seventh China International Import Expo opened on Wednesday in Shanghai, aiming to help intentional parties achieve more trade and investment cooperation deals.
The matchmaking conference features two major themed activities on trade negotiation and investment promotion. Participants are invited to go through multiple rounds of one-on-one and face-to-face negotiations based on targeted matching.
"This year, we have set up the special zone of Investing in China again and will carry out at least 40 promotional events and 50 investment promotion events. A total of nearly 2,500 domestic buyers and nearly 1,000 overseas exhibitors from more than 60 countries and regions have registered to attend the conference," said Yang Jun, a senior account manager of the Bank of China Shanghai Branch.
The matchmaking conference this year has also set up multiple functional zones for negotiation, promotion and financial service for participants. All the 60 offline matchmaking tables are fully occupied and many overseas first-timer participants said they were impressed by the platform and satisfied with the outcome.
"This is our first time that we are in China. It's our first time that we exhibited this fair. And for now, it's a great experience. We are looking for potential partners, honey companies that are doing honey businesses, importers, distributors, retailers and all partners that would be interested for our products," said Marko, a Serbian exhibitor.
"[The conference is great] for us to expand our business network, to understand in depth laws and regulations of Chinese market. Another side to find a way on how we can mobilize private investment to our country," said Louise, an exhibitor from Angola.
As one of the major supportive events of each edition of the CIIE, the previous six trade and investment matchmaking meetings have cumulatively facilitated more than 5,000 cooperation intentions with their combined intended amount exceeding 40 billion U.S. dollars.
CIIE matchmaking conference opens to facilitate cooperation
