Vice President Klaus Zenkel Meets with Shandong Vice Governor Zhou Liwei at SMEC

2023-09-21 | All chapters

On September 21st, Mr. Klaus Zenkel, Vice President of the European Chamber and Chair of the South China Chapter, attended a VIP session during the Sino-German (European) SME Communication & Cooperation Conference (SMEC) in Jinan, Shandong. The session was hosted by Shandong Vice Governor, Mr. Zhou Liwei.

Vice Governor Zhou Liwei welcomed the guests, expressing gratitude for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's strong support for Shandong's initiatives in recent years. He also acknowledged the fruitful cooperation between Shandong and Europe and provided a brief overview of Shandong Province's economic and social development.

VP Zenkel expressed his appreciation for the invitation to the meeting and extended a warm welcome to the Shandong Provincial Government for hosting the conference. He highlighted key findings from the Chamber's 2023 Business Confidence Survey, emphasizing that European companies experienced a decline in profitability in 2022, particularly SMEs. He also noted the foreign national exodus continued in 2022, especially for SMEs. In the recently launched European Business in China Position Paper on September 20th, the SME Working Group outlined the main challenges faced by European SMEs operating in China.

VP Zenkel emphasized that SMEC represents a valuable opportunity to bridge the information gap between China and the international business community, both within and outside China. He stated that this bilateral exchange, after three years of isolation, would contribute to the swift restoration of efficiency, reliability, and predictability in the Chinese market, laying a strong foundation for sustainable, long-term economic recovery.