European Chamber Held Annual General Meeting 2020 Go back »

2020-05-28 | All chapters

European Chamber Held Annual General Meeting 2020

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on 28th May in Beijing, with members from all chapters joining online for the first time ever. 

Marko Tulus from Sandvik was elected as European Chamber treasurer and will serve until 2021. Paul Sives, chair of the Southwest China Chapter, was confirmed as a European Chamber vice president, with his chapter’s number of member entities reaching 10 per cent of total national members. This is the first time a chair of the Southwest China Chapter has become a vice president of the Chamber.

During the AGM, President Jörg Wuttke presented the Chamber’s Annual Report 2019, and each local chapter chair presented their chapter’s achievements of 2019.

“Looking ahead to the remainder of 2020, we are preparing for key events, like high-level visits to China from the European Union (EU) and member state leaders, as well as the EU-China summit set for Leipzig in September. However, we also anticipate many other challenges down the road. Now more than ever, European companies need to be engaged with government stakeholders both in China and back home.” said President Wuttke.

“We will continue to advance the three big issues that the European Chamber has identified: an open market, a level playing field, especially in regards to competing with SOEs, and sustainable development.” said Nicolas Chapuis, EU Ambassador to China.

The chairs of each local chapter highlighted the achievements from their respective chapters in the past year and priorities for the future.

"In 2020, although facing the uncertainness and difficulties, we will continue to play our role as the voice of local European business and the bridge between European business and Chinese counterparts, to observe, to speak, and more importantly, to act and make a difference." said Bernhard Weber, chair of Nanjing Chapter.

"We are maintaining our strong relationship with the Shanghai government, and through our advocacy actions and papers making sure our members' concerns are being heard, as they will be highlighted in our forthcoming local position paper. We have consistently pushed for improved market access and better operating conditions during this difficult period, to remind our counterparts of European companies' important contributions to Shanghai's economy." said Carlo D'Andrea, chair of Shanghai Chapter.

"The strengthened voice of the European Chamber in Shenyang was the main driving force behind our advocacy success: improving business environment and solving problems for companies." said Harald Kumpfert, chair of Shenyang Chapter.

"From locally good to globally great - we have witnessed and supported South China’s tremendous growth in the past. For the future, we are confident to keep contributing our fair share to a world-class business environment in the GBA region" said George Lau, chair of South China Chapter.

"The most important thing we do is to connect with local government. We are able to represent members’ interests very effectively." said Paul Sives, chair of Southwest China Chapter.

"We achieved 8.43% absolute membership growth in membership.  Among Tianjin members, 39% are from manufacturing industry, 13% are from chemicals & pharmaceuticals, 48% are from business services including logistics, international education, food and beverage. In term of community engagement, there were 1600 attendees in 2019 and that is about 14% increase compared with 2018." Cheung Yup Fan, chair of Tianjin Chapter. 

 To download a copy of the Annual Report 2019, please click here.