On the afternoon of November 6, MOFCOM and Hubei Provincial People's Government jointly held the Sino-Nordic Trade and Economic Cooperation in Shanghai. Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
Wang Bingnan said the CIIE is a pioneering undertaking in the history of the international trade development, and it is a major action for China to firmly support trade liberalization and proactively open itself to the outside world. At present, China has promoted reform and opening up at a higher starting point and higher level with higher goals, providing a new historical opportunity for the cooperation between China and Nordic enterprises. In 2017, China’s trade with the Nordic countries totaled nearly US$43 billion, and the two-way direct investment reached more than US$21 billion. China and the Nordic countries should further deepen cooperation, strengthen the conceptual connection. , and jointly oppose unilateralism and trade protectionism. They should create a three-dimensional interconnected structure, promote the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asia-Europe interconnection strategy. They should build diversified economic and trade cooperation framework to fully realize the connotation of cooperation mechanism. They should seize the opportunity of the Yangtze River Economic Belt construction and the Yangtze River Delta regional integration development to enhance the level of pragmatic cooperation.
The foreign guests spoke highly of the first CIIE and expressed their willingness to take this forum as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation with China's advantageous industries such as clean technology, infrastructure, electric vehicles, fisheries, food and energy to further stimulate the potential of economic and trade cooperation between China and the Nordic countries, which will enhance the well-being of people from all countries.
Attending were more than 350 representatives including the officials from China and five Nordic countries such as the Governor of Hubei Province Wang Xiaodong, Minister for Infrastructure of Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation Tomas Eneroth, State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries of Norway Magnus Thue, Ambassador of Iceland to China Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, diplomatic envoys and representatives from associations and enterprises.
During the forum, China and Nordic enterprises signed 21 important cooperation agreements covering chemical, paper, aquatic products and medical fields. 74 Nordic companies such as Volvo, Ericsson, Lego, Maersk, Kongsberg and Finnair participated in the matchmaking activities and reached a number of cooperation intentions with Chinese companies.
