A large-scale seminar on the Chinese economy and investment in
China was held?in Stockholmt on Thursday and Friday.
The event hosted around 800 entrepreneurs and researchers from
Sweden, other north European countries, and the Baltic sea region
as well as business personnel from China. Its purpose was to
promote a greater understanding of China and future cooperative
trade ventures.
In contrast to previous seminars on the Chinese economy, it
invited non-Chinese employees of international companies working in
China from such sectors as finance, trade, research, education,
human resources and mass media and heard their accounts of the
opportunities and challenges they had experienced in working in
China.
The seminar also discussed China's economic development, issues
regarding engaging in outsourcing services in China, and the status
quo of the Chinese market and its consumers.
The Chinese ambassador to Sweden Lu Fengding addressed the
seminar and introduced China's economic achievements and its
development prospects.
Regarding the development of economic ties between China and
North European countries, the ambassador said that the economies of
his nation and those countries were complementary to one other, and
there was great potential to further boost trade relations and
investment.
Lu hoped that north European entrepreneurs and people from
various circles could gain a better understanding of China,
strengthen their faith in trade with China, uphold the principles
of free trade, oppose trade protectionism and further boost their
reciprocal economic ties with China.
In his speech at the seminar, the Swedish ambassador to China,
Dr. Borje Ljunggren, said that the bilateral ties between China and
Sweden had been developed soundly, and that China was now the
largest business partner of Sweden in Asia.
Addressing the seminar and representing the Swedish government,
Sweden's Minister of Industry and also Minister for Industry and
Trade, Thomas Ostros, said that Sweden would continue to oppose
trade protectionism.
The seminar was sponsored by various big North European
enterprises and organizations such as Sweden's international
economic consultant company Springfellow, Scandinavian Airlines
System, and the Swedish-Chinese trade promotion association.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2006)