China welcomes investment from more companies in Bavaria to promote China-Germany practical cooperation, said Chinese Premier Li Qiang during his visit to the German state from June 20 to 21.

At a meeting with Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Soeder on Tuesday, Li said that Bavaria's friendly cooperation with China has achieved remarkable results, making the state a pioneer in promoting economic and trade cooperation as well as friendship between China and Germany.

China will continue to encourage sister provinces and cities from both sides to consolidate mutual trust, expand exchanges, deepen cooperation and achieve a higher level of mutual benefit, Li added.

For his part, Soeder said Bavaria will never forget the strong support provided by China in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bavaria opposes decoupling, supports cooperation and advocates opening up of markets and technologies, Soeder said, adding that the state hopes to deepen economic and trade cooperation with the Chinese side, enhance local exchanges, and jointly address global challenges such as climate change.

Bavaria admires China's great development achievements and is willing to be a reliable partner, he added. 

China is vigorously promoting digitalization and hopes Siemens can expand new areas of cooperation with its Chinese partners in industrial digitalization as well as green and low-carbon transformation, and achieve more win-win results, Li said on Wednesday at the headquarters of Siemens.

Accompanied by Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch, Li watched technology and product demonstrations such as indoor vertical farming, digital enterprise experience center, automatic sorting robots, and high-end magnetic resonance equipment.

Using digital technology to empower small- and medium-sized enterprises is imperative and has broad prospects, Li said. It is also necessary to pay attention to rational planning for the development of artificial intelligence, he added.

Li on Wednesday also expressed hope that BMW will continue to follow the "At Home in China" strategy and stand as a companion of China's high-quality development.

At the BMW Welt, he visited the exhibition areas of intelligent networked vehicles and new energy vehicles, among others, to learn more about the development trend of electric vehicles, new energy development and unmanned driving.

Li said the automotive industry is an important field in which German companies are deeply involved in China's reform and opening up, adding that China is a quality partner of the German automotive industry.

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China, Germany to boost win-win cooperation, address global challenges

(With input from Xinhua)