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2007-06-22 | All chapters

We Are Chinese Firms, Say EU Corporates
Liang Qiwen, China Daily, 22nd June 2007

GUANGZHOU: European Union (EU) enterprises are attaching greater importance to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for their development in China.

"The trading history between China and Europe is more than a century," Friedrich-Karl Bruns, Consul General of Germany in Guangzhou, said in a forum. "We are Chinese companies too."

The forum named We Are a Chinese Company Too - China is Our Home, and organized jointly by Consulate General of Germany in Guangzhou, European Chamber and Consulate General of Sweden, was held in Guangzhou last week.

According to Bruns, the trading volume between EU and China reached $272 billion, accounting for 16.3 percent of the foreign trade in China. EU-invested companies produced around 60 percent of Chinese exported commodities, Bruns added.

EU is the biggest export source of technology for China. More than 25,000 EU enterprises are investing in China, with contract foreign capitals of $100 billion.

"EU enterprises do not only contribute a lot to economic development in China, but also actively make efforts to fulfill social responsibility in the country."

Foreign-owned enterprises created one-third of Chinese GDP, two-thirds of Guangdong's processing trade exports, and one-fifth of Guangdong's tax income.

They also created 20 million jobs in the province, Bruns said.

EU enterprises strictly abide by the labor law; have purchased social insurances for their staff, including the primary workers.

Most of them are environmental-friendly corporations, and are supporting the environmental protection in China.

"Therefore, we ask for the same treatment with the local Chinese enterprises in terms of market access and government purchasing," Bruns said.

"We purchase raw materials in China, process products in China, and put the finished products in Chinese market," Anders Norling, the managing director in China of Sweden-based Becker Industrial Coating, told China Daily. "We are the same as local enterprises."

More than 100 companies from Switzerland, another EU member, have invested in Guangdong, most of them manufacturing firms. However, more and more service firms have come up in the province, including banks and insurance companies.

Last year, one-third of the trade between China and Switzerland was from Guangdong and one-third of Chinese tourists to the EU countries were from Guangdong, Werner Nievergelt, consul general of Consulate General of Switzerland, said.

"China is a very dynamic country, it is the biggest trading partner of our country in Asia. We attach great importance to the relationship with China, as well as its powerhouse Guangdong," Sten Tolgfor, Swedish Minister of Trade, told China Daily.

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