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

Baic Motor

16/06/2023 12:16

(Adds analyst comment, Siemens comment)
       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 lessen its
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 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 (APA), 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.
    Andrew Small, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's
Asia program, said the question was whether Germany was using
de-risking as a cover of essentially maintaining close business
ties with China, except for a few areas such as raw materials.
    BASF  BASFn.DE , Bayer  BAYGn.DE , Infineon  IFXGn.DE ,
Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE  and BMW  BMWG.DE , all companies with
major business ties to China, declined to comment.
    Siemens confirmed that its CEO would be present at the event
on Tuesday in his capacity as APA chairman.
    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, Christoph Steitz,
Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss in Frankfurt; Christina Amann,
Andreas Rinke, Rene Wagner and Sarah Marsh in Berlin; Jan
Schwartz in Hamburg and Alexander Huebner in Munich; Editing by
Raju Gopalakrishnan and Louise Heavens)
 ((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 647;))