Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder received the China-Europe Friendship Award on Wednesday in Hamburg,Germany in recognition of his outstanding achievements in cultivating relations with China. (Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn)
"The Sino-EU investment agreement is essential for EU-China relations to reach their full potential. And we do hope that the agreement will be concluded in 2017,"said Melsheimer.
Melsheimer said China's economic slowdown, stagnation in many European countries and United Kingdom's vote for Brexit are pressing challenges that will affect the bilateral economic relations between China and European Union.
Facing the difficulties, Schroder said China and Germany have a special responsibility to respond these challenges. "The efforts will determine the direction which the globalized world will take -- politically and economically," said the former chancellor.
Schroder has urged more open dialogues between Europe and China to achieve the goal of improving economic relations and the understanding of each other.
Li Yizhong, chairman of China Federation of Industrial Economics expressed his confidence in the continuous boosting of bilateral trade and investment flow.
"Many figures have shown that foreign investors are strongly confident in China's investment environment and economic prospects," said Li, former minister in charge of information technology and work safety.
Li said that the sum of direct investment from 28 EU countries surpassed seven billion dollars during January-August period this year, a 48.7 percent year-on-year increase.
"I also hope we could wrap up the ongoing investment talks as soon as possible to further facilitate bilateral investment activities," said Li.
