“I believe the Europe forum series organised by CEIBS and its partners has enhanced mutual understanding and mutual cooperation between China and European countries, and has become a new platform for us to know each other better and to establish new friendships. Zurich is the last stop of this year’s Europe forum series. As the saying goes, ‘last but not least’. So I’m sure that this last leg of the forum will be one of the best.

On behalf of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Zurich and for the Principality of Liechtenstein, I warmly congratulate and welcome everyone at this forum. As a Consul General, you would expect me to share with you the perspective from the government side.

Switzerland has always been a pioneer in Sino-European relations. We have countless examples to illustrate that friendship. In the past five years, President Xi Jinping from China and the President of the Swiss Confederation have visited each other. We have had six state leaders from China making official visits to Switzerland in the past five years, and 18 Swiss counterparts visiting China in the same period.

In the first half of 2018, year-on-year growth of bilateral trade between the two countries was 36.5%. The further opening up of the financial industry in China has become the driving force for the in-China business of many Swiss financial institutions. On the other hand, ICBC has officially established their Zurich branch, and two routes have been opened from Chengdu and Shenzhen directly to Zurich.

This April, for our forum of Asia, President Xi Jinping announced a series of important initiatives for the further opening up of China. Last week, Premier Li Keqiang attended the 12th Asia-Europe meeting in Brussels and echoed what President Xi said. Not long ago, BMW became one of the first foreign companies to have more than 50 percent share in its JV in China. That is to say, China is not only announcing, but also executing, its policies.

Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in the world is still very complicated. There are a lot of challenges for China’s development, so the Chinese government will remain tranquil and use our strategy, together with our people, to stand strong despite the challenges and also to pursue a bright future together with other countries. I’m sure that with the full-scale development between China and Switzerland and the broader context of China’s opening up, there will be more collaborative projects of mutual benefit and a win-win for the people of both.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the past four decades, China has made huge achievements and we always prioritise people’s health in our strategies. We have established the largest primary healthcare system in the world, recognised by the World Bank and WHO. In 2016, China promulgated its 13^th five-year plan and, within that, Health China 2030 has become a national strategy. The 19^th congress of the CPC has comprehensive deployment of executing that Health China 2030 strategy.

We know that Switzerland’s health industry is a world leader, especially Zurich which is home to all the state-of-the-art technologies, high-end talent, and cloud computing big data artificial intelligence. Everything is happening [here] and it is profoundly changing our lives. I hope that this afternoon, from this forum, we’ll be listening to the insights and exchange of experts on both sides to explore more opportunities that can complement our capabilities.

We shape the future of smart health and the healthcare industries of China and Switzerland to enrich the innovative strategic partnership between the two countries and to improve our quality of life. I wish this forum complete success. Thank you very much.”