The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce answers questions from reporters on the situation of Sino German economic and trade cooperation

A reporter asked: German Chancellor Merkel will pay an official visit to China from February 25th to 26th. May I ask what activities and achievements both sides will have in the economic and trade field at that time? How to evaluate the current development status and future cooperation prospects of Sino German economic and trade relations?

Answer: Over the past 50 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany, bilateral economic and trade cooperation has continued to deepen. Germany has always been China's largest trading partner and source of foreign investment in Europe, with deep integration of industries and continuous consolidation of cooperation foundations between the two countries. In recent years, the trade volume between China and Germany has remained above 200 billion US dollars, and the stock of two-way investment has exceeded 65 billion US dollars, both accounting for nearly 1/4 of the overall scale of China and the European Union.

German Chancellor Mertz will lead a high-level economic and trade delegation to visit China this time. About 30 top executives from German advantageous fields such as automobiles, chemicals, biopharmaceuticals, machinery manufacturing, and circular economy will follow up, fully reflecting Germany's strong willingness to deepen bilateral economic and trade relations. The Chinese side attaches great importance to economic and trade cooperation with Germany, and is actively preparing for activities such as the China Germany Economic Advisory Committee Symposium with the German side, providing suggestions and ideas for both sides' enterprises, and jointly building a communication and dialogue platform for cooperation.

This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan. We welcome German enterprises to seize the new opportunities brought by China's high-level opening-up to the outside world, continue to consolidate cooperation in traditional fields with China, and at the same time tap into the potential for cooperation in emerging fields such as clean energy, embodied intelligence, biotechnology, and industrial digitization, turning "cooperation opportunities" into tangible "cooperation achievements". China is willing to work with Germany to enhance understanding and mutual trust through dialogue and communication, support free trade, uphold the rules based multilateral trading system, promote high-quality development of China Germany economic and trade cooperation through practical actions, and effectively play the role of "ballast" and "promoter" for China Germany and China Europe relations.