The China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is waiting to take effect, as it undergoes a rigorous legal review. As both sides are working to promote the implementation of their new investment agreement, companies and investors seem already eager to embrace opportunities in promising sectors under the new framework.

On Thursday, some 300 entrepreneurs, investors, experts and government commercial representatives from China and EU countries met at an online forum, which aims to help both sides better understand the historic agreement, and look at what it will bring.

Experts regarded the long-awaited deal as an unprecedented one, which opens the door wider for European access to China's market, and vice versa.

"Most of it is about new opportunities in the manufacturing sector, which represents the bulk of European investment to China," said Italian trade commissioner Gianpaolo Bruno. But the official added that the treaty also entails a lot of concessions within the service industries, which include telecommunication services, banking, insurance and more key sectors.

"So it is a really an all-encompassing agreement that will certainly benefit a lot of areas between both economies," said the Italian representative.

And unlike traditional bilateral investment treaties, the CAI addresses not just market access. It's also expected to help correct what the EU viewed as "imbalances" in the relationship, by creating a level playing field. This includes rules on state-owned enterprises, as well as greater transparency when it comes to subsidies.

"They will feel that the investments are more protected. They will feel more confident to invest in China. And perhaps they will consider investing in China to develop new projects," said Patrícia Conceição, a Counselor for Investment at the Portuguese Embassy in Beijing, when talking about companies of her country.

She added that China has also made a very important commitment regarding sustainable development. "Of course these fields are of great opportunities, and we will see a lot of investment related to climate change, to the energy transition," said the Portuguese counselor.

Zhang Jianping, director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under China's Ministry of Commerce, said the agreement will see both sides benefit from each other's advantages, forming a more complete global value chain and supply chain - for example, through Europe's advanced high-tech sectors and China's outstanding manufacturing capacity.

But with market access relaxed, he believed that it will also bring a certain competitive pressure to Chinese companies, forcing them to increase their investment in research and development, to find ways to retain talents and really improve the competitiveness of their products. "In fact, I think it's a good thing to have pressures to survive when it comes to market competition," said the scholar, who later quoted words of Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying that Beijing welcomes competition in a "racing field, but not by beating each other in a wrestling arena."

Experts also predicted that there will be more joint-ventures to exploit the market together, as China shows greater determination to promote higher-level opening to the rest of the world. With the agreement in place, many Europeans at the meeting said more investment and bilateral events are likely to bring China and EU economies closer together, increasing cooperation in other areas in the future.