SOURCE / ECONOMY
Swiss enterprises eye China’s huge market potential: Diplomat
Published: Apr 20, 2021 07:43 PM
Swiss watches Photo: IC

Swiss watches Photo: IC





Swiss companies are eying China's huge market opportunities, particularly after the country has successfully controlled the pandemic, Yves Morath, commercial counselor of the Embassy of Switzerland in China and the head of Swiss Business Hub China, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Morath's comments came days before the first China International Consumer Products Expo will be held in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province from May 7-10. Switzerland will attend the expo as the only guest country of honor.

Under Chinese government's master plan to build a free trade port in the whole of Hainan Island, the country in 2020 decided to host the China International Consumer Products Expo. Global products will be duty-free at the event.

With a nearly 80,000-square-meter exhibition hall, the expo is expected to attract more than 1,200 global exhibitors. About 40 Swiss companies, including a wide range of brands from Swatch to Appenzeller Bier, will attend the event.

"Consumers and buyers will come not only from Hainan, but from all over China. So this represents an excellent business opportunity," Morath said, adding that since China has handled the coronavirus well, the Chinese market has largely come back to normal. This is not the case with other foreign markets. 

"Therefore, China offers one of the most interesting potential markets worldwide for Swiss businesses," he said.

In 2013, China and Switzerland signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) - the first that China reached with a continental European country. Three years ago, the two sides agreed to work on upgrading the agreement, Morath said. 

China is the third most important trade partner of Switzerland. The FTA has effectively increased bilateral trade. Data showed that there are trade creation effects of more than 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.09 billion) per year both in exports and imports, he said.

"Additionally, the FTA is today used by broadly 60 percent of all Swiss companies, which is already in our understanding a very good rate. As this rate is still increasing, we see this as a positive tendency in the application of the FTA."

In particular, the Hainan free trade area has the potential to create more market share for Swiss brands in China, and it can also be a test location for Swiss companies in the Chinese market, he said, adding: "We expect that the Hainan free trade port will support this positive evolution and further develop trade between China and Switzerland."