“This is my first time in Chengdu, and in just one day, this city deeply marked me,” said Harald Unkelbach, member of the board of directors of the German group Würth.
Arrived the day before Germany, his schedule in Chengdu, capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan (southwest), for February 21 was already full: in the morning, he participated in an investment promotion meeting and has exchanged with various actors at a fair bringing together companies and government; In the afternoon, he visited industrial zones to assess investment projects; And in the evening, he was able to discover the daily dynamism of this city.
Qunifying Chengdu as a city full of opportunities and energy, Mr. Unkelbach stresses that “this metropolis plays a key role in the development of western China, and we are very optimistic about the vast potential of this market”.
It is one of the more than 100 representatives of multinational companies who participated, from February 20 to 22, in a discovery mission dedicated to investment and industrial cooperation in Chengdu.
During this event, several meetings and investment negotiations took place in parallel, including roadshows of multinational companies, round tables with foreign companies, targeted meetings and personalized visits.
On February 21, on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Friendly Cooperation between the Italian city of Asti and the new area of Tianfu of Sichuan, Maurizio Rasero, governor of the province of Asti and mayor of the city of Asti , said that Asti, as an important historic and cultural city in Italy and the economic center of the wine industry and mechanical manufacturing, has a large potential of Cooperation with Chengdu in fields such as industrial development and technological innovation.
Thomas Zundel, director of a Swiss company specializing in the manufacture of air purifiers, expressed his intention to invest and establish a production base in Chengdu, a promising perspective, after his visit to the Sino- French.
“Through these exchanges, we hope to strengthen economic and commercial cooperation,” says Yang Ming, vice-president of the Economy Europe Senate, an influential think tank, and the main representative in China of the world market leaders.
“We actively collaborate on pilot projects such as a collective logistics center for digital trade China-Europe and a technical training institute for German-Chinese hidden champions”, he adds, also expressing the hope that this Meeting served as a springboard for new cooperation opportunities.
Today, the international “circle of friends” of Chengdu continues to expand. The total amount of foreign investments in foreign companies in the city exceeds $ 46 billion. About 5,000 foreign companies are planted and developed, 315 of which are among the 500 largest global companies. The number of foreign companies and the extent of investments place Chengdu at the top of the western cities and the center of China.
