A delegation from Catalonia visits China to enhance relations with Chery and other international automotive companies

The Minister for Business and Labour from the Government of Catalonia, Roger Torrent, traveled yesterday to China to meet with several multinationals in the automotive sector. One of the meetings will be with Chery managers at the company's headquarters in the Wuhu region. It is the second time during this term of office that Torrent travels to China to boost the attraction of productive foreign investment in Catalonia.

In addition to Chery, the Minister for Business and Labour will also hold meetings with other Chinese multinationals in the electric vehicle sector with the aim of positioning Catalonia as one of the most attractive regions in Europe to set up production plants there.

With 27 million vehicles produced by 2022, China is the world's leading automobile-producing country, well ahead of the United States (10 million), Japan (7.8 million) and India (5.5 million). It is a strategic country for the government, one of the largest investors on a global scale but one of the least established countries in Europe in the manufacturing field.

Torrent's trip is one of the initiatives promoted by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment – the agency for business competitiveness belonging to the Ministry for Business and Labour – through the China Desk. This initiative aims to increase the attraction of investment projects for production plants, their headquarters, or technology centers of Chinese companies, mainly in the mobility and health sectors. To do so, it has a team of Chinese professionals located in Barcelona with the same business culture – a fact that facilitates the dialogue with local authorities and managers of multinationals – who follow a specific strategy to facilitate the establishment of multinationals from this country.

In fact, Torrent already traveled last October to China, where he announced that the Chinese multinational Wanhua, one of the world's largest in the chemical industry, will open an innovation center in Catalonia with the support of ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment. During the mission, the Catalan delegation also met with the Chinese textile company Shanghai Jingqingrong Garment, which will open its first overseas production plant in Catalonia.

There are currently more than 200 subsidiaries of Chinese companies established in Catalonia, with an exponential growth in recent years that has made China the third most important non-European country in terms of number of subsidiaries in Catalonia, only preceded by the United States and Japan.