On December 6th, Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce of China met with Brüderle, Minister of Economics and Technology of Germany, representatives of German MP of major political Parties, and the businessmen delegation.

Chen said, Germany was the most important economic and trade partner of China in Europe. Although the bilateral trade declined this year due to the global financial crisis, the declining range was obviously lower than the general declining ranges of foreign trade of the two countries. Particularly, German export to China decreased only by 4.7%.

In the first ten months of 2009, the amount of actual investment made by Germany in China reached $1.08 billion, up by 32%, which is 25% share of EU total investment in China. Moreover, Germany had become more and more important in China's strategy of Going Global and the connotation of cooperation between the two sides in various fields had been enriching.

Chen also stated that Sino-Germany economic and trade cooperation had a solid foundation and bright prospects. As the world economy is to recover, the cooperation between the two countries will keep expanding. Minister Chen proposed to strengthen Sino-Germany trade and economic cooperation in three aspects:

Firstly, to strengthen trade and economic cooperation in Energy conservation and Environmental Protection and tap potential of cooperation in Green Economy, Recycling Economy, and Low-carbon Economy.

Secondly, to expand service trade cooperation. China would further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and hopes that Germany would increase its service export to China.

Thirdly, both governments should facilitate cooperation in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Minister Brüderle expressed his appreciation for China's role and contribution in tackling the financial crisis and stabilizing the world economy. He stated that both countries had made enormous achievements in years of economic and trade cooperation and hoped that such a momentum would continue.

Germany totally agreed to China's suggestions and hoped that both sides would keep communication and exchanges so as to strengthen and enlarge long-term bilateral economic and trade cooperation in light of the great potential for cooperation. The German government welcomed China's enterprises to invest in Germany and it would provide relevant support for them.

The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on issues of common interest such as opposing protectionism, coping with climate change and developing green economy, etc.