On October 30, 2015, Premier Li Keqiang and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who was paying an official visit to China jointly attended the symposium of China-Germany Council of Economic Advisers in Hefei, and had dialogues and communication with representatives of the two countries' entrepreneurs.
The Chinese and German chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers first reported the results of the meeting. Leaders of over ten enterprises such as the China Minmetals Corporation, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, ZTE Corporation, Fosun Group, Anhui Credit Guaranty Group, and Germany's Siemens AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, Volkswagen Group and Metzler Bank respectively commented and made suggestions on topics such as strengthening China-Germany cooperation in smart manufacturing, facilitating business people's visa application, creating an environment of fair competition and properly settling trade disputes between China and Europe. Li Keqiang and Angela Merkel attentively listened to their speeches and responded accordingly.
Li Keqiang said that China and Germany enjoy very close relations and increasingly in-depth cooperation. We welcome German enterprises to expand investment in China and conduct more economic and trade cooperation. China will further open its market in investment area. Foreign enterprises registered in China, no matter individual proprietorship or joint venture, will all enjoy the equivalent treatment as Chinese enterprises. China will achieve cooperation and docking with Germany's strategy of "Industry 4.0" during the process of implementing "Made in China 2025" and promoting "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", and will further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. Although China is now experiencing a slowdown in the economic growth rate and a difficult process of energy conversion, it enjoys an enormous potential in domestic demand with central and western China still being the hugest potential market. We hope that more German companies can make investment in China's central and western regions. China remains one of the most attractive destinations of investment. Foreign companies, including German ones, have wide prospects in cooperation with China.
Li Keqiang pointed out that the developing countries now have a great demand in infrastructure construction. Despite the weak recovery of world economy and prominently unbalanced development among countries, it will benefit all the three sides if we combine the developed countries' high-level technologies with China's middle-level technological equipments through international production capacity cooperation to better meet the developing countries' needs, expand the market of the developed countries' advanced technology and products as well as help upgrade China's industrial structure. We hope that the German companies can take the whole world in view to conduct cooperation with China in the third-party market for mutual benefits and win-win results. We also hope that the small- and medium-sized enterprises of the two countries can exploit their advantages and strengthen cooperation in strategy docking and industrial upgrading between the two countries to forge new growth points in China-Germany economic cooperation.
Angela Merkel said that Germany and China have achieved very close cooperation. Both countries should strengthen exchanges and dialogues on mechanisms and take concrete measures to further expand bilateral cooperation. Germany is willing to actively participate in China's process of deepening reforms and economic restructuring, participate in the development and construction in central and western China, and become China's good cooperative partner. Germany welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in Germany and will make efforts to provide convenience for them in aspects such as market access and visa application.
After the meeting, Li Keqiang and Angela Merkel witnessed the signing of fifteen bilateral cooperative documents in fields such as economy, trade, investment, finance, urbanization construction, and people-to-people and cultural engagement.
State Councilor Yang Jing attended the symposium.
