WTO Appreciation Dinner with Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhou YuPeng Go back »

2006-12-16 | Shanghai

WTO Appreciation Dinner with Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhou YuPeng

The European Chamber in Shanghai hosted its first Annual EU-China Appreciation Dinner on December 14th. We were delighted to welcome some distinguished guests from the EU and the Shanghai Municipality. As Ambassador Abou had experienced airplane trouble earlier in the day, the EU Delegation was represented by Charge d’Affaires, Dr. Michael Pulch. The guest of honor was Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhou YuPeng.























Prior to the dinner a select group of corporate sponsors were invited to attend a closed-door VIP meeting with the Shanghai Municipality representatives. The full delegation from the municipality included Vice Mayor Zhou YuPeng, Mr. Sha Lin, Chairman of SAEFI (and former Vice Mayor), Mr ZhouBo, Chairman of Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission (SMERT) and Ms. Zhang Yixing, Vice Chairman of SMERT. What ensued was an informal, friendly and open dialogue between both sides. The corporate representatives were able to offer some insights as to what their companies were doing in the municipality and the government side took the opportunity to quiz them on a number of different issues.

All the government officials moved to a dinner event in the banquet hall with over one hundred influential representatives from diplomatic missions, EU industry, trade and services. European Chamber Shanghai Chapter Chairman, Dominique de Boissesson, spoke first and introduced the dynamic growth and enormous achievements of the European Chamber in 2006, particularly in Shanghai.





















EU Charge d’Affairs, Dr. Pulch spoke next, and in a fair and frank assessment, gave a brief introduction of China 5 Years after WTO Accession, discussed its impact on EU-China Relations and the role Played by EU Industry in China. ‘In practice, although all in all China has had a good track record in terms of WTO compliance, there has been a mixed record in the combination of economic liberalization and strategic protectionism in key sectors’, Dr. Pulch argued.

The breath-taking growth of China is clear to everyone. The last 5 years have been an obvious success in so many aspects. However, ‘besides WTO implementation’, Dr. Pulch continued, ‘China still faces crucial challenges: widening regional & rural-urban income disparities, bottlenecks in land/water/energy resources and environment protection, the restructuring of the financial sector and capital markets – linked to the burden of over-investment, shortages in the rural economy, localism of provincial governments and corruption, state sector reforms, education and IPR protection.’

He concluded by saying that WTO accession has certainly helped China’s growth and that the global marketplace is a better place for China’s emergence. He wished both the EU and China the best for the coming five years. The European Union, supported in China by the European Chamber, will continue to push for the implementation of mutually beneficial reforms that contribute to improving the business environment for all.































The event was a clear success, strengthening already substantial relations between the European Chamber and the government in Shanghai. Both sides are already considering how to build on the friendship and cooperation, endeavoring to forge even stronger and more useful ties into 2007.