Which country will be among the first to bid farewell to the current global financial and economic downturn? A senior German business leader believes it will be China.
"After analyzing the world's economic development, I believe China will be among the first countries that will come out of the crisis," Dotthold Aden, chairman of Bremen Logistics Group (BLG), said.
Bremerhaven is the biggest automobile shipping port in Europe, and BLG, an automobile logistics giant that employs 16,000 people worldwide, is the leading vehicle logistics company in the port.
Aden, considered the Czar of Bremerhaven, has kept a close eye on global economic development in a bid to make strategic adjustments to BLG.
In an interview with Xinhua, Aden said China is a powerful economy with a big domestic market, and Chinese goods have a big share in the international market.
Thanks to a huge well-trained labor force, China boasts great economic potential, he said.
Aden said the Chinese government has adopted a series of "wise incentive measures" to expand its economy and boost employment.
China rolled out a 4-trillion-yuan (585.5 billion U.S. dollars) two-year stimulus package last November, which includes huge government investment, tax reform, industrial restructuring, scientific innovation, social welfare and boosting employment.
China will also cut taxes by 600 billion yuan, raise pensions for retired workers, hike salaries of 12 million teachers, increase incomes of farmers, and provide more subsidies for them.
The country also plans to spend 850 billion yuan on reforming the health care sector within three years.
"All these measures will achieve positive results," Aden said, predicting that China will be "among the first to escape the difficulties of the global economic crisis."
Aden noted that China had set the goal of achieving 8 percent economic growth this year.
"For China, it is comparatively lower than past years, but we Germans would be very delighted if we could achieve such a growth rate," Aden said in jest.
Because of high expectations for China's future, Bremerhaven designated China a partner country for a global logistic conference held here on Thursday and Friday.
Aden's BLG also invited six Chinese-brand car makers, Cherry, Huatai, Lifan, Foton and GreatWall to attend the conference, to discuss strategy to tackle the economic crisis and explore future cooperation.
Although Chinese car makers are still relatively new to the industry, and it would be unrealistic for them to enter the European market in a big way at present, Aden believes they have the ability and potential.
"Just like Korean and Japanese cars, Chinese cars will enter the European market in the future, and they will be quicker than the Koreans and Japanese in terms of scale and speed," he said.
BLG is already providing logistic services for Chinese car makers such as Brilliance, Cherry and Jili, although admittedly the figure currently is rather small compared to the company's annual handling volume of 5.6 million vehicles.
"We look to the future," Aden said, noting that Bremerhaven could be the "gateway" for Chinese cars to enter Europe.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2009)
