Meeting with DG Zourek, DG Enterprise and Industry Go back »

2010-03-25 | All chapters

European Chamber President Joerg Wuttke, Ad Council Members, and Working Group Chairs attended a dinner, hosted by EU Ambassador Abou, in honour of visiting Director General for Enterprise and Industry Heinz Zourek, on Wednesday, March 24th.

DG Zourek and his delegation are in China for meetings with NDRC, MIIT, AQSIQ and SFDA to cover areas related auto, chemicals, cosmetics, ICT, medical devices, metals, pharmaceuticals, raw materials and textiles.  DG Zourek  was keen to hear concrete examples of the challenges that EU companies are facing in China.  He also briefed participants on the impact of economic crisis in Europe. He noted that industry, in particular, was hard hit with a 20% decline in manufacturing compared with only a  4% delince in services. He also highlighted that DG Enterprise has undertaken a study on EU Competitiveness in 30 different sectors which it expects to release this summer. It will look at structural issues and both short-term/long-term impacts.

EU Chamber members expressed their concern about the current business enviroment for relevant sectors they represent. The indgenous innovation catalogue and compulsory certification systems were both outlined as the current hot topics while general market access issues, IPR, frequent changes in regulation and lack of respect for contract law were also mentioned as on-going challenges.