During the 6th China Jilin • Northeast Asia Investment & Trade Expo (hereinafter referred to as NAITE), People’s Government of Jilin Province and European Entrepreneurs Club will co-sponsor the “EU—China (Jilin 2010) Business Meeting & EU —Northeast Asia Economic and Trade Seminar” from Sep. 4th to 6th, 2010, in Changchun City, Jilin Province.

Representatives of the chamber of commerce, entrepreneurs and the diplomats, commercial attaches to China from European Union member states will be invited to the meeting. This will be an important measure for the entrepreneurs and strategic investors from European Union to participate in the revitalization of the old industrial base in Jilin Province and develop new market in Northeast Asia. On this occasion, on behalf of People’s Government of Jilin Province, I would like to extend my warm congratulations to the meeting and sincere welcome to the distinguished guests and my heartfelt thanks to Euro-China Entrepreneurs Club for its care and support to the development of Jilin!

Jilin Province is located in the geographic center of Northeast Asia which is composed of Northeast China, DPRK, ROK, Japan, Mongolia and East Siberia of Russia. Due to its locational advantage in regional cooperation of Northeast Asia, Jilin Province plays an important role in the international cooperation and development of Tumenjiang River Region which is actively supported by UNDP. Jilin Province is an important industrial base and commodity grain production base in China. The province enjoys advanced science and technology, beautiful ecological environment, abundant natura resources and huge development potential. Since the implementation of the strategy of revitalizing the old industrial base including Northeast China, Jilin Province has enjoyed a better and faster economic and social development characterized by rapid growth, good return and vigor.

Nowadays, seizing firmly the opportunities of implementing a new round Northeast China revitalizing policy and the construction of Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Opening up and Development Pilot Zone, with the overall objective of “scientific development, revitalization acceleration, strong province and better-off people”, taking “mind emancipation, reform and innovation, mode transformation and scientific development” as the theme, we promote industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization in a balanced way, constantly deepen reform and opening up, actively adjust and optimize the structure, and speed up the transformation of development mode. In particular, we expand the scale of the automotive, petrochemical, agricultural products processing industry, and make great efforts to develop strategic emerging industry focusing on new energy, new energy vehicles, new materials, biotechnology, electronics and information, so as to maintain the stable and rapid economic development. The new development in Jilin Province possesses numerous business opportunities and shows bright prospects. It brings new opportunities and vast space for investment and cooperation of EU enterprises in Jilin Province.

Jilin Province has always attached great importance to developing friendly cooperative relations with EU. The close bilateral economic and trade cooperation has made EU the largest foreign market of Jilin Province. Based on the principle of equality and mutual benefit and with a more open and positive attitude, we are willing to develop exchanges and cooperation with EU in various fields, such as economic, trade and others. “EU – China (Jilin 2010) Business Meeting & EU—Northeast Asia Economic and Trade Seminar” is an important carrier for cooperation between EU and Jilin Province. During the meeting, more than 100 representatives from EU enterprises will exchange ideas with over 200 representatives from Jilin enterprises and explore mutually beneficial business cooperation in the fields of automotive manufacturing, machinery and equipment, railway transportation, agriculture and food, environment friendly products, IT electronics and others. We sincerely hope that all the EU entrepreneurs take this opportunity to consolidate consensus, seize business opportunities, enter the markets in Jilin and Northeast Asia in order to share development opportunities and create a brighter future with joint efforts.

Wish “EU – China (Jilin 2010) Business Meeting & EU—Northeast Asia Economic and Trade Seminar” a complete success.

Since 1998, Macro Euro-China Entrepreneurs Club—the national representative of Euro-China Business Meeting, has been functioning as a bridge to connect European and Chinese SMEs and facilitate cooperation.

In the past 12 years, we have organized thousands of Chinese enterprises to attend Europartenariat in Europe for 6 times. We have, together with EU chambers of commerce, held more than 100 business talks between European and Chinese enterprises. In the meantime, we have cooperated with dozens of Chinese city governments and arranged more than 150 European SME visiting delegations to attend similar kinds of talks in China. Through these years, we have been dedicated to promote the bi-lateral SME cooperation.

In 2001 and 2002 we have successfully organized Euro-China Business Meeting, which was supported by the EU and Macau government. In 2007, we have cooperated with EU chambers of commerce and organized Euro-China Business Meeting in the most prosperous area of China—Shanghai Economic Region.

This year, we will be holding Euro-China Business Meeting in Changchun, Jilin, through cooperation with the local government. By then, 100 European enterprises will be sharing business concerns with Jilin counterparts and seeking for possible cooperation.

Here I would like to extend my gratitude to Jilin government for financially supporting the event, enabling us to gather together in this beautiful city.

Lastly, I must thank EU’s Asia-Invest Programme, for connecting Chambers in both Europe and Asia with NGOs and subsidizing all kinds of activities that aims at promoting SMEs cooperation in Europe and China. Although the Asia-Invest Programme has been readjusted as the world’s economy shifts, it is always the most powerful network that materializes business cooperation between the two parties.