China’s Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to attend “Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe” on 23 and 24 November

The 7th “Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe” conference, one of the major Sino-European conferences of the year, will be addressing current challenges and economic relations between China and Europe on 23 and 24 November 2016. Three guests of honour are to hold speeches at the conclusion of this event: China’s Vice Premier, Liu Yandong, the European Commission’s Vice President, Jyrki Katainen, as well as Germany’s Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

 

 

Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz, CEO of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, the host of the event, commented: “We are very much looking forward to once again welcoming the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs.” Following his visits in 2008 and 2014, this will be Mr Steinmeier’s third appearance at the conference. “Good relations with China continue to be one of the cornerstones of German foreign and economic policy,” Mr Schmidt-Trenz said, adding: “We are therefore delighted that the Federal Minister will continue this vital dialogue in these vulnerable times by attending this conference.”

The new Honorary Chairman of the event will be Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. “It is an honour for me to succeed my predecessor, former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, as Honorary Chairman of the ‘Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe’ conference. This forum greatly contributes to developing and deepening both Sino-German relations and Sino-European relations,” Mr Schröder commented.

In addition to recent political and economic developments between Europe and the People’s Republic, this year’s panel discussions and keynote speeches will focus on the Chinese government’s New Silk Road initiative, as well as bilateral investment flows between the EU and China and the digitisation of the economy in Europe and China.

The Hamburg Summit – a platform for China and Europe

Initiated by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, the Hamburg Summit is the major Sino-European economic conference. The conference aims to provide a platform for fair exchange between China and Europe as a means of fostering Sino-European relations. At the same time, the Hamburg Summit offers entrepreneurs from both world regions the opportunity to obtain first-hand information on current developments and to broaden their networks. As a high-level platform for open dialogue between Europe and China, the conference serves to improve economic relations and promote mutual understanding. Participants include leading business representatives, politicians and academics from China, Europe and other parts of the world.

With China’s Vice Premier attending this year’s conference, the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce will once again host a high-ranking guest of honour from China. On the European side, Mr Jyrki Katainen, the European Commission’s Vice President responsible for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, will serve as guest of honour and travel to Hamburg, Germany's most important trading hub, to attend the conference. At the last Hamburg Summit, which was held in 2014, the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce had the pleasure of welcoming China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang. For this year’s event, the two Chinese co-hosts, the industry association CFIE and the service association CATIS, will once again send two large delegations to Hamburg.

To learn more, please visit www.hamburg-summit.com or www.twitter.com/HamburgSummit

Hamburg – China’s trading hub in Europe

Hamburg is China’s gateway to Europe. Today more than 50 percent of German foreign trade with the People’s Republic of China is handled in the port of Hamburg. In 2015, the volume of China-related container transport amounted to 2.5 million container units (TEU). This accounts for about a third of the volume of all containers handled in Hamburg, making China the port of Hamburg’s number one foreign trade partner. Over 550 Chinese companies have offices in Hamburg, and Hamburg is thus home to more Chinese businesses than any other European city. More than 700 Hamburg businesses are engaged in trade with China, managing their China-related imports and exports from Hamburg for the whole of Europe.

In 2016, Chinese companies were especially interested in Hamburg’s digital market. In June 2016, Spearhead, a Beijing-based company, acquired the mobile advertising platform Smaato from Hamburg for 148 million US dollars. Likewise, Dutch chip maker NXP is currently selling its high-tech semiconductor plant in Hamburg to a consortium made up of Jianaguang Asset Management and Wise Road Capital. In April 2016, Chinese company Youzu Interactive Co Ltd acquired the Hamburg-based game developer Bigpoint with the aim of jointly building a global marketplace for online and mobile games.

With the recently hold CHINA TIME series of events and the Hamburg Summit in November, Hamburg is playing host to this year’s two biggest China-related events. In addition, Hamburg is celebrating its 30th anniversary of partnership with Shanghai in 2016 and continues to maintain close political, economic, cultural and social relations with this Chinese trading hub.

Media Service:

 

Media contact:

Hamburg Marketing GmbH

Matthias Beer

Media Relations

Phone: +49 40 300 51 582

E-mail: matthias.beer@marketing.hamburg.de

Web: www.mediarelations.hamburg.de

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