On September 14-15, 2023, the 12th VDMA China Machinery Summit hosted by VDMA Business Consulting (Beijing) Co., LTD and its Shanghai branch (hereinafter referred to as (GMECS)) was held in Shanghai. With the theme of “China’s road to carbon Neutrality – Opportunities and Challenges for the Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing industry”, the summit attracted more than 150 guests, including members of the German Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Association (VDMA) in China, government officials, academic experts and industry professionals.

This year’s VDMA Summit adopted a new approach, expanding the scope of the summit to two days instead of the previous one-day event, in order to enrich the experience of participants and fully increase the networking opportunities of guests.

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On the first day of the conference, Dr. Fu Rong, German Ambassador to China (online), Mr. Yu Yuantang, Director General of the European Department of the Ministry of Commerce of China, Mr. Yan Ci, President of the European Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Gu Jiandang, Chairman of the VDMA China Advisory Board and Phoenix (China) Investment Company Limited, were present and delivered opening remarks. During the meeting, guests discussed Sino-German trade, the current economic situation and potential future prospects, and Dr. Xu Niansha, President of the China Machinery Industry Federation, delivered a keynote speech. Due to the rapid increase in the quantity and quality of Chinese research achievements over the past decade, the conference also explored in depth the challenges and opportunities of Germany-China research cooperation.

Finally, Claudia Barkowsky, VDMA Chief Representative, moderated the roundtable discussion. The session was organized around the theme “How companies can better manage risk by adjusting their China strategy”, which has attracted much attention since 2022, and exchanged ideas on how German and other European companies can achieve risk prevention through supply chain diversification. VDMA member companies Wanker, Demag, Ormond and industry expert Colleen Abel from the German Federal Trade and Invest Agency discussed how the German machinery and equipment manufacturing industry should respond to the changing situation and challenges. At the end of the roundtable discussion, Barkowsky concluded: “Localization in China is a top priority, but in the European corporate headquarters will inevitably bring some challenges.”

The 15th meeting and visit activities were held at the summit’s partner, Shanghai Reshaping Energy Group Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as “Reshaping Energy”). Reshaping Energy is the world’s leading hydrogen technology company, and at the summit, they showed participants the most advanced hydrogen technology products and internationally certified research and development facilities. Next, Mr. Liu Zhixian, Chief representative of VDMA Shanghai, chaired a roundtable discussion with the theme of “China’s road to carbon neutrality – Opportunities and Challenges for machinery and equipment manufacturing”, and the participants unanimously expressed their confidence in achieving the peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.