The first German-Chinese governmental consultations, which were held on 28 June 2011 in Berlin, provided the framework for the German-Chinese Forum for Economic and Technological Cooperation, which is chaired by the German Economics Minister, Philipp Rösler, and the Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Zhang Ping. With over 500 participants – half of whom had travelled from China – the very well-attended forum opened with speeches by the Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, and the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, among others.