Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe
| Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe |
|
|---|---|
| Status | active |
| Genre | international trade conference |
| Frequency | bi-annually |
| Location(s) | Hamburg, Germany |
| Inaugurated | 2004 |
| Founder | Helmut Schmidt |
| Participants | 600 |
| Area |
 People's Republic of China European Union
|
| Organised by | Hamburg Chamber of Commerce |
| Website | |
| hamburg-summit |
|
The Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe is a biennial high-level conference on Sino-European economic relations held in Hamburg. The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce initiated the first "Hamburg Summit" in 2004 to set up a platform for an open dialogue between Europe and China and to improve their economic relations.
In discussions between the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, mayors of Hamburg and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Commerce the idea was born to organise a conference in Hamburg to intensify the economic and political dialogue between Europe and China and improve the economic relationship. Hamburg as venue for the conference was a consequential choice because of the strong economic relations between the hanseatic city and the People's Republic of China. With more than 550 companies from China Hamburg is one of Europe's most important locations for Chinese companies. In addition to port-oriented companies (COSCO, China Shipping) Hamburg also hosts European headquarters of Chinese industrial companies (Baosteel, Sinosteel) or Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC). With the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the two largest Chinese banks are also represented in Hamburg. On the other side over 700 Hamburg companies maintain business relations with China. For Northern, Central and Eastern Europe Hamburg has a central role in business with China, as Hamburg is the transit station for most of the imports from China and a distribution center for onward transport to the new EU accession countries, but also to Russia and Western and Southern Europe. Indeed, about one third of the container traffic in the port of Hamburg is related to China.
2004
In the presence of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt over 350 decision makers from politics, industry and academia discussed the current state of Sino-European relations during the first “Hamburg Summit”. The Chinese guest of honour was then Deputy Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan.
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Wikipedia