International Affairs
From September 10 to 16, the Chamber of Commerce gathered a delegation of 40 business people, headed by Mr. Jeannot Erpelding, Director of International Affairs, during an economic mission titled ‘Belt and Road’ to China. With logistics and cross-border E-commerce as the main sectors, the mission visited three cities in China: Hong Kong, Zhengzhou and Shanghai.
The mission started in Hong Kong by attending the Hong Kong Belt & Road Summit on Monday, Sep. 11. The summit was organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), partner of the Chamber of Commerce. This second edition of the summit gathered more than 3000 worldwide participants, including high level politicians and influential economists from China, East South Asia and Central Europe.
One Luxembourgish project of multimodal transportation was published on the brochure of the summit, which made Luxembourg the only Western European country featured in the publication; The major projects promoted at the summit were the partnerships with ASEAN, and their growth through infrastructure and financing opportunities via Hong Kong. The Luxembourgish companies have a deep understanding and concrete action plans regarding how to use Hong Kong as a platform to enter the Asian market as well as how to take part in the Belt and Road opportunities via this portal.
The delegates took part in different presentations sessions covering topics such as the transport & logistics infrastructure and urban development, and which were followed by an integrated matchmaking and networking platform connecting project owners & operators, investors and service providers from related business sectors.
A networking reception was organized on Monday evening, in the presence of the Honorary Consul of Luxembourg, Mrs. Sophie Leung, during which the delegates had the opportunity to meet the local Luxembourgish and Hong Kong business communities
On Tuesday morning, before going to Zhengzhou, the delegation visited Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) and was very impressed by the world-class facilities, highly efficient operation, and innovative technologies of this leading air cargo operator.
The highlight of the mission was the event Henan - Luxembourg Belt and Road Economic Forum - Air Silk Road enhances deep cooperation, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce in Zhengzhou on Wednesday, 13th September. Zhengzhou, capital city of the Henan Province becomes China’s logistics hub, thanks to its geographic location. Since the establishment of the relation between HNCA and Cargolux in 2013, the exchanges between Luxembourg and Henan have become more frequent and meaningful. The recent bilateral visits of Henan and Luxembourg high officials and the business cooperation between both countries have helped strengthen the relationship. More than 125 people participated in the forum, not only from Zhengzhou but also from other cities of Henan and even other provinces of China, to get an overview of the Henan and Luxembourg economies, presented by the Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) of Henan and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce respectively.
Two Memorandum of Understandings had been signed between the CCPIT of Henan and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as between Henan Civil Aviation Development & Investment Co., Ltd. (HNCA) and the Chamber of Commerce. The Luxembourg representatives of the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure were sitting amongst the VIP guests; Mr. Rol Reiland, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Embassy of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in China gave a welcome speech, while Mr. Luc Decker, Consul General and Executive Director of Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Shanghai made the conclusion remarks.Mr. Reiland also announced the arrival of the new Ambassador of Luxembourg in China on the same day. A company testimonial was given by Mr. Maxim Straus, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of Cargolux Airlines International S.A. to share its success story of collaboration with HNCA. The forum continued with a Panel discussion: Henan - Luxembourg Logistics Prospectives, moderated by Mr. Malik Zeniti, Director of the Cluster for Logistics. The panelists were Mr. Liu Jianbao, General Manager of HNCA, Mrs. Xu Ping, Chairwoman of Henan Bonded Logistics Center, and on the Luxembourg side, Mr. Stavros Evangelakakis Manager Global Product Management of Cargolux and Mrs. Barbara Chevalier, Director of strategy and business development of CFL Multimodal.
A B2B Matchmaking event followd the panel discussion. Luxembourgish companies manned their booth allowing individual negotiations with Henan business people; A networking lunch gave the opportunity to further deepen exchanges.
Aside from the forum, the programme in Zhengzhou also included the visit of 5 companies. Immediately after the matchmaking, the delegation went to Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., Ltd. Headquartered in Zhengzhou. Yutong Group is a large scale industrial group specialized in the manufacturing of buses, but is also active in other businesses areas such as construction machinery, automotive components or real estate among others. In 2016, Yutong Group delivered a total of 73,703 units of buses and construction machinery, up 4.4 percent over the previous year. Yutong Group’s turnover reached 45.2 billion RMB, 8.1% higher than in 2016, accounting for Yutong Group continuously ranking first in the bus industry worldwide in terms of enterprise scale and sales performance.
Visit of the China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone
Building the China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. This major initiative entails deep reform with the objective of opening up the Chinese market by promoting the “Belt and Road” Initiative overall and its development both at home and abroad. According to the China (Henan) Free Trade Zone Program, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Luoyang areas were established as pilot districts.
Henan Bonded Logistics Center
BLC is a group providing B2B and B2C cross border E-Commerce administrative and distribution services.
Established on January 7th, 2010, it is the only dedicated logistics center in the Henan province. It covers a total area of 550,000 square meters and an amount of RMB 2 billion is to be invested in the center, in 3 phases. BLC comprises 4 functional Zones: a bonded logistics center zone, a functional service zone, a comprehensive service zone, and a special logistics trading zone. Recently BLC decided to cater to E-commerce activities in this center, so it is currently looking for partners in this sector.
Among the companies implanted in the bonded logistics center zone, the delegation visited Xiaohongshu, an overseas shopping tip App for people to review merchandise bought overseas. In just two years, it has attracted 15 million consumers and $200m in annual merchandise sales. Its valuation has already raised from $120m to $1bn, with investors such as TenCent, ZhenFund, GGV Capital and GSR. A perfect example of how fast businesses scale in the newly mobile connected China.
At Zhengzhou International Hub Development and Construction Co., ltd., the delegation was captivated by a TV screen showing real time footage of the company’s trains transporting merchandises between Zhengzhou and Europe, with Hamburg and Munich as terminals. The company and CFL Multimodal have agreed to establish Luxembourg as sub terminal in the near future.
The company visits ended at the Henan Zhengzhou Airport logistics platform, where the delegates had the chance to set foot onto the tarmac and to board a Cargolux aircraft that was ready to fly back to Luxembourg.
The last destination of the mission was Shanghai. On Friday, 15th September, a Luxembourg Cross border E-Commerce workshop was organized at the Consulate General in Shanghai. The delegation was warmly welcomed by Mr. Luc Decker, Consul General and Executive Director of Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Shanghai, whose team has also provided great support during the mission.
Three speakers, experts in Cross Border E-Commerce in China - Mr. Rafael Jimenez, Business Development Advisor, from EUSME Center, Beijing, Mr. Maverick Fang, Tmall Global, in charge of European selling to China, Alibaba Group and Mr. Robbert Gorris, Business development Manager, Sovereign (China) Limited - explained to the delegation how successfully perform E-commerce in China, for example by setting up a WeChat shop to sell via cross-border e-commerce or via Ali ecosystem on Tmall.
As a bonus, the delegates attended a presentation of the Sino-Benelux Business Survey 2017, given by Mr. Raoul Schweicher, Manager of Moore Stephens, who is also a Luxembourgish expatriate living in Shanghai.
For more information regarding this mission and the ‘Belt and Road’ seminars series co-organised by the Chamber of Commerce and the ChinaLux Chamber (on 16th October, 2017 for ICT and on 10th November, 2017 for Finance), please contact International Affairs team at China@cc.lu, or call Ms. Na Shi and/or Ms. Violaine Mathurin at +352 42 39 39 364/481.
