On September 19-20, the 2023 Sino-European Entrepreneurs Qingdao Forum in Qingdao, jointly organized by Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation (SIEF) and The people's Government of Qingdao, was successfully held in Qingdao International Conference Center. Leading political and economic figures from around the world gathered to discuss new potential for China-EU cooperation while focusing on the topic "Navigating to Our Future Prosperity: Sino-European Dialogue and Cooperation".

LONG Yongtu, Co-chairman of SIEF, Former Vice Minister of MOFTEC, Chief negotiator for China's resumption of customs and WTO accession, and LU Zhiyuan, Deputy Secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of Qingdao Municipal Party Committee, attended the forum and gave speeches.

According to Mr. LONG Yongtu, China will continue to uphold the fundamental state policy of opening up to the outside world, enhance the business climate, and support the further growth of economic cooperation between China and the EU.

As the 20th anniversary of the creation of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU approaches, Mr. LU Zhiyuan stated that Qingdao will continue to develop a world-class market-oriented, rule of law, internationalized business environment so that businesses from around the world will feel relieved to invest in Qingdao and feel at ease about their future development.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up and the 10th anniversary of "the Belt and Road" initiative. The forum shared exchanges and stimulates wisdom through various formats, including the main forum, thematic dialogues and round-table sub-forums.

The forum featured keynote speeches by invited Mr. HUANG Qifan, a researcher and former Mayor of Chongqing, LIU Xiaoming, Former Vice Minister of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission，Former Ambassador to the UK and other important guests.

Entrepreneurs such as Mr. Mark WANG, President and Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bank (China) Limited, Mr. Ben Simpfendorfer, Partner of Oliver Wyman, Chairman of Oliver Wyman Forum Asia Pacific, Mr. JIA Shaoqian, Chairman of Hisense Group, and Mr. WU Lebin, Chairman of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)Venture Capital Investment Management and other entrepreneurs delivered keynote speeches, sharing their experiences and strategic insights on corporate innovation and development. Representatives of renowned enterprises held dialogues and discussions on the themes of "Digital Sustainability: Innovation and Responsibility in Shaping the Future" and "Chinese Brands Going Overseas: New Trends, New Paths and New Media". Together, they explored new opportunities of China-EU economic and trade exchanges and cooperation.

The forum promoted Qingdao’s business environment and Shinan District. Qingdao has obvious advantages in China-EU strategic docking cooperation. In 2022, Qingdao was selected as a case study area for China-EU regional policy cooperation. Shinan District is an important central urban area in Qingdao City. It has high-quality resource endowments and development environment, and is home to famous attractions such as China's "World's Most Beautiful Bay" and the Olympic Sailing Center. The "6+1" industrial system of modern finance, digital technology, high-end business, fashion consumption, shipping trade, cultural tourism and headquarters economy is booming.

This forum held the unveiling ceremony of Center for Sino-International Communication and the signing ceremony of 8 China-EU cooperation projects. More than 10 results of Qingdao’s cooperation with Europe were highlighted.

More than 350 guests from well-known companies, business associations and news media such as Siemens, Airbus, Volkswagen and Sodexo attended the forum.