Swiss companies see continued high opportunities in Chinese market: Swissmem

GENEVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China is essential for Switzerland and Swiss companies are seeing continued high opportunities in the Chinese market, a spokesperson of the Swiss association of mechanical and electrical engineering industries (Swissmem) said on Thursday.

China is already the third biggest market for Swissmem's member companies, and investing in China "is a long term investment" that will bring mutual benefits, said Jonas Lang, Swissmem's Deputy Head of Communication, during an interview with Xinhua.

Swissmem groups the country's largest industrial employers, which exported products worth more than 69.7 billion Swiss francs (75.91 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, with 79 percent of them intended for foreign markets.

Semi-conductors, specialized cables and advanced machine tools are among the products exported by members of Swissmem.

Some of those products could be used to help China reach carbon neutrality by 2060, Lang said, adding that some Swiss companies have already seen a rising demand from China as the country is taking the lead to step out the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Swissmem highlighted in a recent report that Switzerland has often been a pioneer in cooperating with China, and recommended Swiss government and Swiss companies to follow that same pioneering spirit to strengthen Switzerland's indispensability in both diplomatic and economic terms.