China Week for BIO Deutschland
The first China-Germany Healthcare Investment & Business Development Summit was held in Beijing, organised by Sun Health and attended by representatives including Bianca Ahrens (Morphosys), Michael Schlenk (Curasan), Wolfgang Söhngen (Paion) and BIO Deutschland, which presented other members of the association at the summit. The event was hosted by the China Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA), part of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), and Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), part of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). On the first day, the approximately 100 participants listened to presentations given by representatives of Chinese and German companies, investors and government organisations. On the second day, company representatives had the opportunity to meet a large number of Chinese investors.
At the beginning of the same week, BIO Deutschland took part in the 9th German-Chinese Forum for Economic and Technological Cooperation at the BMWi, with a focus on “Maintaining and Promoting Innovation and Competitiveness”. In addition to the host, Economics Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier, the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave keynote speeches. The event was attended by various industry representatives who, like the Chancellor, emphasised the great importance of reciprocity for the countries’ sustainable trade policy.
The following day, BIO Deutschland received a delegation from the province of Zhejiang at the association’s Berlin headquarters. The reason for the visit was to discuss a project led by BIO Deutschland member BluCon BioTech GmbH, which is currently being further developed in two laboratories – one in Cologne and one in Hangzhou – as well as plans for a first site for the low-cost production of biodegradable plastic from agricultural waste in Ningbo. The Chinese partners are planning a total investment volume of €2 billion over several years, and have already pledged the first part in order to finance R&D.