The 8th EU-China SME Policy Dialogue

2017-11-09 | Beijing, Southwest China

EU SME Centre attended the 8th EU-China SME Policy Dialogue.

In the morning of the 9th November, the EU SME Centre joined of the 8th EU-China SME Policy Dialogue which took place in Guangzhou. During the Dialogue, Mr Zhang Feng, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China and Director Kristin Schreiber of the European Commission’s DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) updated each other on the SME policy developments in both Europe and China. The EU SME Centre presented the challenges faced by European SMEs when doing business in China. The main topics of the dialogue were market access, better regulation, access to finance and late payments.

In the afternoon, the EU SME Centre and the European Chamber jointly organised a policy meeting focusing on the supporting tools of the EU for the internationalisation of EU SMEs. Director Kristin Schreiber and Mr Jean Marie Avezou from DG GROW presented the different tools and initiatives that the EU had put in place for the EU to support the development of SMEs in third countries. As examples of this initiatives, Mr Chris Cheung, Director of the EU SME Centre presented the newly launch EU project ENRICH which focused on innovation. Then Mr Xavier Sans Powell introduced the EU SME Centre and its services. This was followed by a presentation delivered by Ms Francine Hadjisotiriou on the business environment and challenges faced by EU SMEs in South China. Finally, three SMEs presented their experiences in South China and discussed how they managed the different challenges they had encountered in order to develop their business.