Guest of honour: Mr. Joerg Wuttke, Vice-President of BASF & President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China,

Topic: What will your challenges be in 2021 as a Western company in a booming Chinese economy?

1. In spite of some recent "aggressiveness", trade not only continues but grows at a high rate between China and the West (both Europe and the US) even though companies operating in China may experience critical component shortages leading to temporary disruptions (e.g., Automotive).
   
2. There are difficulties on the investment side, but there is also space for further investments from western companies into China in the years to come, especially in the green energy area where massive transformation is expected to reach a carbon neutral situation by 2060.
   
3. China is likely to dominate the innovation world in the field of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or Robotics by 2025. “So, let's stop dreaming about the technologies we are still transferring to China and start figuring out the steps as to how we could import new technologies into the West?”

Conclusion: It’s high time to re-balance investments between China and the West and close the corresponding CAI (Comprehensive Agreement on Investments) since this negotiation has been going on since the last 7 years.