The China Development Bank and the Swedish government are jointly accelerating construction of an outbound investment financing platform for Chinese companies to go international, a senior official with Invest Sweden said on Wednesday.
“The platform will serve as a good example of facilitating Chinese companies to conduct business in developed countries,” said Eddie Chen, vice-president and chief representative for Greater China of Invest Sweden.
Chen pointed out that Chinese companies have good technologies and products but lack experience and financing support in entering the markets of developed countries.
“They need support from a good investment financing platform,” he said. “As China’s major banks have not been able to provide such a platform currently, we must speed up providing a good example.”
According to an agreement signed between the China Development Bank and Invest Sweden in March, four industries will receive priority in investment promotion: windpower and renewable energy, infrastructure, mineral resources and high-end iron and steel products, and transnational investing and financing platforms for high-tech enterprises.
Since then, the two sides have arranged for major Chinese companies to conduct surveys in Sweden.
“We believe it is a good time for Chinese companies to go abroad and our platform will become a good brand,” Chen said, adding that China and Sweden are highly complementary in the four fields.
For instance, Chinese companies now stand a good chance of joining Sweden’s iron ore exploitation.
Chen said Sweden has abundant iron ore reserves, ranking seventh globally. The iron ores are rich and of good quality.
In the late 1990s, Sweden passed a law allowing foreign investors to exploit the country’s iron ore mines. However, Sweden closed its iron ore mines in 1990s due to low prices.
As the demand for iron ore surged in recent years, Sweden has resumed exploitation of the major iron ore mines in its northern provinces.
Chen pointed out this is a golden opportunity for Chinese companies planning to invest in natural resources in Europe.
“About 90 percent of Europe’s demand for iron ore is satisfied by Sweden,” he said.
New energy resources are another area in which China and Sweden can cooperate.
Sweden is one of the European countries with the best new energy technologies and opportunities, especially in windpower, said Chen.
Sweden plans to add an installed capacity of 300 million kilowatt hours by 2020, which is a gigantic market for investors.
