Chongqing - On August 5, Chongqing Office of Southwest Chapter of the European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) held Business Confidence Survey 2020 (BCS) Launch. President of European Chamber, Mr. Joerg Wuttke, and Chair of European Chamber Southwest Chapter, Mr. Paul Sives, joined the launch and gave a presentation on key findings of the survey.

The China Business Confidence Survey 2020 was released by EUCCC, in cooperation with Roland Berger. At the time when China-based European companies find themselves navigating in the tough situation due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the results of the BCS offer industries to focus their reform efforts in order to bring about quicker economic recovery and restore business sentiment.

Southwest China shows positive economic growth out of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Mr. Jerg Wuttke expressed his concern that many China-based European companies still face problems such as personnel not returning to work due to epidemic, the rise of human resources cos, etc.

"Although COVID-19 has brought huge global challenge and uncertainty, most European companies are committed to China," said Jerg Wuttke. According to the survey, over 60% of the companies that took the survey think China is still among the top 3 places to invest. "We are in China and for China. We cannot succeed unless China succeeds." Said Mr. Paul Sives.

Paul Sives pointed out that due to effective control of COVID-19 in China, positive results have been achieved. As China's epidemic situation has been improving, cross-provincial package tours have resumed, and hospitality and catering industries have gradually been recovering. Especially Southwest China and Chongqing have shown good signs of economic growth.

"Chongqing offers equal fiscal stimulus measures to both Chinese and foreign-invested companies." Paul Sives remarked. Most of EUCCC's member companies are satisfied with the business environment in Chongqing. In the past few years, its member companies in Southwest China grows steadily.

EUCCC's member companies' views on the Chinese market have been improving over the years. "European companies are more and more positive about China's R&D and innovation environment." Said Mr. Paul Sives. Currently, 40% of its member companies think China's innovation level is higher than the world's average level, especially in fields of financial service, medical equipment, aerospace, and environment. The positive sentiment is a result of the stimulus measure taken by the government, encouraging foreign-invested companies to take part in R&D. 30% of the companies comment on the efforts positively and 8% of companies think they benefit from that greatly. 

The survey started February this year, covering 1308 companies, among which 626 companies completed the questionnaire. Please click the link to download the BCS.