State Secretary Hirte travels to China to beat the drum for eastern Germany as a business location

The Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States, Christian Hirte, will travel to China from 12 to 17 May. On this trip, he will be joined by Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), the Federal Government’s foreign trade and investment agency. The goal of the trip is to present the eastern Länder as an attractive location for business and investment.

Parliamentary State Secretary Christian Hirte said: “Since Germany’s reunification in 1990, the economy in the eastern Länder has undergone a profound structural change. As a result, the eastern Länder have developed into a future-oriented and attractive business location that offers many interesting opportunities for cooperation and investment. I hope that holding investors’ meetings on the ground will help attract more Chinese companies to the eastern German region. In this context, the Federal Government always seeks to ensure fair and transparent market conditions and a level playing field for domestic and foreign companies. We are therefore in favour of a multilateral rules-based trading system and an equitable competitive environment for trade and investment that is based on fairness and reciprocity. We would welcome it greatly if China were to accelerate economic reforms across all sectors of the economy”.

During his trip to China, State Secretary Hirte will launch conferences of investors in Beijing and Shenzhen that are centred around the digital economy. Together with the GTAI and the eastern German business promotion agencies, which will also take part in the trip, information will be provided on investment opportunities in the eastern Länder and eastern Germany will be promoted as a thriving location for businesses to set up in. State Secretary Hirte will also meet with Chinese and German companies and participate in a roundtable discussion with Chinese start-ups in Beijing.

Foreign investors increasingly recognise eastern Germany’s attractiveness as an investment location. Every year, around 100 international investors come to eastern Germany and create new jobs. Currently, there are around 200,000 jobs created in the eastern Länder that have been directly or indirectly by foreign companies. This shows that Germany as a whole continues to be an open location for foreign direct investment.

For additional information on Sino-German economic relations and GTAI’s advisory services on investment opportunities in eastern Germany, please go to www.gtai.de and www.powerhouse-eastern-germany.de.