China ranks 1st in trade, investment with Germany, opportunities abound

China will in the future stay one of Germany’s top partners for trade and investment, German institutions said.

“Because China’s GDP growth is expected to be stable in 2017 and coming years, and the transformation of Chinese industry is proceeding, there are still a lot of opportunities for trade,” Andreas Bilfinger, spokesman of Germany Trade and Invest ( GTAI), the economic development agency of Germany, told the Global Times on Tuesday via e-mail.

China became the largest trade partner of Germany for the first time in 2016, with bilateral trade at 170 billion euros ($ 193 billion), according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Germany will in the future buy more high- tech goods from China. For example, imports of machinery

from China increased by more than 7 percent in 2016, Bilfinger said.

In addition to increasing trade exchanges, Germany has attracted Chinese investors who seek to enhance their brand and technology with Germany’s solid industrial basis, stable economy, great market potential and sound research and development environment, experts said.

China has become the country that invested in the most projects in Germany ,281, with a focus on business and financial services, machinery manufacturing and equipment as well as electronics and semiconductors, data from GTAI showed. It forecast that these projects will create at least 3,900 jobs, breaking the re- cord of 1,170 in 2015.

For example ,94 Chinese firms established a business in North RhineWestphalia alone through NRW. INVEST, the development agency of the state, said Feng Xinliang, executive representative of the Beijing Representative Office of the agency.

And with an emphasis on longterm development and full respect for staff members, Chinese firms are gradually becoming the most attractive employers in Germany, and China’s acquisitions of German firms help them enter the Chinese market.

“We consider foreign companies in Germany to be German companies instead of competitors, and we treat them equally because we know an open and free market brings healthy competition and sparks innovation.

This will also help local companies keep competitiveness in the global market. And we hope German companies in China can enjoy the same treatment,” Bilfinger said.

The Belt and Road( B& R) initiative will further enhance trade between China and Germany, Bilfinger said.

Many infrastructure investments in countries along the B& R route are expected to be launched, where German and Chinese companies can work together. That is one reason why Germany decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, he said.