Chinese delegation to meet with Germany's top corporate brass next week

Baic Motor

16/06/2023 10:45

FRANKFURT/BERLIN, June 16 (Reuters) - A Chinese
delegation led by Premier Li Qiang will meet Germany's top CEOs
next week as part of a visit to Europe, hoping to strengthen
ties at a time when Berlin is pursuing a strategy to lower
economic dependence on Beijing.
    The meetings highlight the dilemma for German companies,
which greatly depend on the Chinese market to sell their goods
and procure materials, putting them at odds with the
government's goal to diversify away from China.
    A meeting between Li and a group of German and Chinese CEOs
is scheduled for Monday, June 19, according to people familiar
with the plans.
    Mercedes-Benz  MBGn.DE , SAP  SAPG.DE  and Siemens Energy
 ENR1n.DE  all confirmed that their CEOs would meet with the
delegation. The CEO of Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE  division Audi will
also participate, a person familiar with the matter said.
    A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz, which counts China's
Beijing Automotive Group Co Ltd  1958.HK  and Geely Chairman Li
Shufu as its two top shareholders, said topics would include
Mercedes' commitment to China and the ongoing opening of the
Chinese market following the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Siemens  SIEGn.DE  CEO Roland Busch, who also chairs the
Asia-Pacific Committee of German business, will also be present
at an event with Li, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economy
Minister Robert Habeck scheduled for June 20, the people said.
    BASF  BASFn.DE , Bayer  BAYGn.DE , Siemens  SIEGn.DE ,
Infineon  IFXGn.DE , Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE  and BMW  BMWG.DE ,
all companies with major business in China, declined to comment
or were not immediately available for comment.
    While German CEOs have repeatedly warned of cutting or
reducing economic ties with China given its significance,
industry has realised that dependency on China regarding
critical raw materials needs to be addressed.
    "The motto has to be: overcome one-sided dependencies, but
not by doing less business with China, but rather more business
with other countries," Siegfried Russwurm, head of German
industry association BDI, said in May.

 (Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Hakan Ersen, Christina Amann,
Christoph Steitz, Andreas Rinke, Rene Wagner, Jan Schwartz,
Alexander Huebner, Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss; Editing by
Raju Gopalakrishnan)
 ((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 647;))