Jinan to promote China-Europe SME cooperation

A cooperation and exchange conference targeting Chinese, German and other European small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) will be held from Sept 21 to 22 in Jinan, Shandong province, officials announced on Sept 12.

The conference will be held both online and offline and cover various sectors such as talent attraction, technique exchange, industry docking, industrial park cooperation and company investment.

To date, 350 people, including former government officials, diplomats, organizations leaders, scholars and business leaders, have confirmed that they will attend the conference.

The conference will consist of activities such as exhibitions, keynote speeches and roundtable discussion sessions. Fashion and lighting shows will also take place at the city's Chaoran Pavilion on Sept 21.

The six editions of conference held since 2015 have seen the participation of 2,680 companies and witnessed the signing of 105 projects with a total investment of nearly 48 billion yuan ($6.6 billion).

In May 2017, the first China-Germany SME cooperation zone in northern China was launched in the Jinan Innovation Zone. Over the past six years, the zone has been exploring new models, methods and measures to boost cooperation. During this period, the zone's fixed asset investment and industrial output value grew from 7.69 billion yuan and 4.1 billion yuan to 21.9 billion yuan and 11.71 billion yuan respectively.