Bilateral interaction enhances China-EU economic and trade relations

Editor's note: Yao Ling is the director of the European Institute with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Despite facing adverse factors such as geopolitics, this year, China and the EU have focused on implementing the results and consensuses reached at the 24th China-EU Summit and the 10th China-EU High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue. 

Both sides have strengthened their interactions and exchanges in the field of economy and trade, promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation to continue their pivotal role as "anchors" for China-EU relations.

On the multilateral front, China and the EU have collaborated to facilitate 10 achievements during the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration, the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement, the Ministerial Decision on Dispute Settlement Reform, and the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce.

They actively practice multilateralism and work together to safeguard the WTO as an important platform for global economic governance.

At the bilateral level, China hosted the first Roundtable for Foreign Enterprises in 2024 for Belgian companies and has chosen Denmark, Germany and Italy as the preferred locations for the "Invest in China" activities overseas. 

This move utilizes the "Invest in China" brand and the mechanism of the Roundtable for Foreign Enterprises to actively address the concerns of foreign enterprises, including those from Europe.

At the same time, China is advancing Chinese-style modernization with high-quality development, fostering "new quality productive forces," sustaining economic recovery and improvement, continuously expanding high-level opening-up and building an international, rule-of-law-based and market-oriented business environment. 

This has provided vast opportunities for transnational corporations, including European companies, to benefit from China's development dividends, further enhancing the economic and trade interactions between China and the EU. 

Transnational companies from European countries such as Germany, France and Denmark participated in this year's China Development Forum and announced new investment plans in China. 

"Investing in China means investing in the future" and "There will be no global strategy without a China strategy": This is the consensus among the majority of transnational companies, including European ones, providing robust support for the sustainable and steady development of China-EU economic and trade relations.