Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met today (15 April) with State Secretary of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Brantner and a delegation from the German business community.

Gong Zheng extended a warm welcome to the delegation of the German business circles. He said: Shanghai attaches great importance to economic and trade cooperation with Germany and has become an important hub for the internationalization strategy of many German enterprises. At present, Shanghai is speeding up the construction of a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence, and we are willing to promote trade and investment exchanges between the two places, continuously expand new areas of industrial cooperation, expand new increments of trade cooperation, jointly build a green and low-carbon supply chain system, and promote the economic and trade cooperation between Shanghai and Germany to a new level. At the same time, we will continue to promote scientific and technological cooperation and innovation exchanges, and expect German companies to combine their own advantages with Shanghai's resource endowment, introduce more technologies to Shanghai, and gather more innovative talents. We welcome more German companies to make good use of the platform of the CIIE and share the growth opportunities of China's mega-scale market. Shanghai will continue to optimize the business environment and help all kinds of enterprises achieve better and faster development in Shanghai.

Brantner and some members of the delegation said that Shanghai's development achievements are encouraging, and it has played a pioneering role in many aspects, making it more attractive for investment with its open and business environment. Over the years, a large number of German companies have taken root in Shanghai and feel that they have become a part of Shanghai, and they are willing to increase investment in Shanghai and deepen cooperation in green and low-carbon transformation, artificial intelligence and other fields. It is hoped that Shanghai will continue to expand its opening up to the outside world, continuously optimize the business environment, and look forward to the common development of the two sides.

Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken, Chairman of the Board of Siemens Boleren, BASF Executive Board Elect Keli, Mercedes-Benz Group Chairman Kang Linsong, BMW Chairman Zipzer, DHL CEO Tobias Meyer, ThyssenKrupp CEO Miguel Lopez, Zeiss Group President and CEO, EOS CEO Marie Niehaus-Langer, Voith CEO Torralfo Haag, Bayer CEO Bill Brown, CEO of Bayer Brown Brown Anderson, Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck Ge Lihe, and Covestro Group CEO Steilemann attended the meeting.

(Photo by Zhang Chunhai)