The promotion event for the 9th China International Import Expo (CIIE) was successfully held in Vienna, Austria from June 1 to 3, drawing around 200 representatives from Chinese and Austrian business communities.

On June 2, at the themed event themed Celebrating the 55th Anniversary of China-Austria Diplomatic Relations and the 60th Anniversary of Bilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation hosted by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Wu Zhengping, Executive Director-General of China International Import Expo Bureau and Chairman of National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) (Shanghai), delivered a promotional presentation on the 9th CIIE.

Wu Zhengping noted that China and Austria have yielded fruitful outcomes in economic and trade cooperation over the past 55 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties. As the world’s sole national-level expo themed on imports, the CIIE embodies China‘s efforts to advance high-standard opening up and promote balanced development of international trade. Boasting robust industrial complementarity and deepening bilateral economic and trade links, China welcomes high-quality Austrian enterprises to participate in the 9th CIIE with premium products, technologies and services. By leveraging the CIIE platform, Austrian firms can expand business footprint in China and help upgrade the China-Austria friendly strategic cooperative partnership.

Meng Fanzhuang, Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Austria, remarked that heads of state of the two countries recently exchanged congratulatory letters marking the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, reaffirming commitment to deepening pragmatic cooperation across all sectors under the framework of the friendly strategic cooperative partnership.

Severin Gruber, Secretary-General of Austria’s Federal Ministry of Labour, Economy, Energy and Tourism, stated that guided by the principle of mutual respect, China and Austria have witnessed deepening economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges, with promising cooperation prospects spanning economy, trade, science & technology, tourism, environmental protection and other fields. Both sides should jointly advance in-depth friendly exchanges and cooperation across sectors to further elevate bilateral ties.

During their stay in Austria, the working group held in-depth exchanges on Austrian institutional and corporate participation in the CIIE and Hongqiao International Economic Forum (HQF) with Elisabeth Wiesenberger, Director for Asia-Pacific Department at Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour, Economy, Energy and Tourism; Counsellor Meng Fanzhuang from Chinese Embassy in Austria; Yao Shenhong, Director of Strategy Planning and South-South Cooperation Division of UNIDO; Wolfgang Hesoun, Vice President of Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and Georg Zanger, Chairman of Austria-China Business Association.

In addition, the working group met with executives from WFL, FACC, LKW, Steyr Motor, RHI Magnesita and other leading Austrian enterprises, all of which expressed positive intentions to tap into China’s domestic market via the CIIE platform.

The promotion event received strong support from the Economic and Commercial Office of Chinese Embassy in Austria, Austria-based Chinese Enterprises Association and Bank of China Vienna Branch.