China Competence in Hessen

Ten years ago, two chambers of commerce and industry (IHK) of the German state of Hessen predicted extraordinary growth of their mostly small and medium-sized member enterprises’ China business. This would mean a growing demand for China specific services from the IHK. These two were the chambers of Frankfurt and of Darmstadt, and they decided to jointly establish a “China Competence Center” (CCC). They celebrated the 10th CCC anniversary on 27 November 2017 at IHK Darmstadt, reviewing quite a success story.

Sonja Mueller, general manager of CCC, and the chambers’ department heads of international affairs Martin Proba (Darmstadt) and Dr. Juergen Ratzinger (Frankfurt) confirmed the great acceptance of this service with regional small and medium-sized enterprises, even beyond Hessen. In just one decade, the CCC assisted 770 Chinese enterprises to settle down in the Rhine-Main Area. It received more than 100 Chinese delegations, organized 150 major events, answered 4,400 enquiries and published 40 articles.

Beijing correspondent Stephan Scheuer of the German “Handelsblatt” business daily described in his keynote speech some of the latest developments in China. He pointed out that some sectors were given priority and special support in Xi Jinping’s development strategy, opening new opportunities for German companies. “In some other sectors, however, China is already much ahead of Germany and even of Silicon Valley, such as digitalization and online services,” said Scheuer.

Sonja Mueller presented examples of good cooperation between Hessen and China in a panel discussion with regional business people and sports celebrities.

More info and image source: Deutsch-chinesische Allgemeine (in German).

Hessen ranks fourth in GDP among the German laender, and is positioned at the 4×4 slot within the G8x8. In 2016, it achieved a GDP of 269.4 billion € and a share of 8.6 percent of the German total. Its GDP was higher than that of Israel and Hong Kong, but slightly lower than that of Egypt.