Executives from nearly 30 leading European companies, including Swedish furniture maker IKEA, recently attended a live-streamed Forum on New Investment Opportunities between China and the EU.
The high-level virtual dialogue was led by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and had many of the European executives feeling very optimistic toward the Chinese economy with a positive stance on the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) trade talks. During the dialogue, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China would push for further improvement of its business environment and create a level playing field.
Amongst the European companies happy to welcome the new investment agreement between China and the EU is IKEA which has over 400 suppliers in China.
Chen Hui, IKEA PLA manager, said to Global Times, that IKEA as a foreign-invested company standing at the connecting point of China’s newly introduced ‘dual circulation’ growth model, looks to bring foreign experience in the setting up of Chinese standards, and promotes Chinese technological standards in the world market. According to Chen Hui, policy support, a relatively complete supply chain, strong economic performance, and strengthened confidence are among the reasons for IKEA to continue to plow deeper into the Chinese market.
According to China customs data, the EU is China’s second-largest trading partner. Last year the merchandise trade between China and the EU was $696.3 billion, up 5.3 percent on a yearly basis.
