German firms make beeline for China

Innovative technology: A worker cleaning an electric vehicle at the BMW booth during an auto show in Shanghai. The carmaker has announced an additional investment in its Shenyang production base, following two decades of rapid expansion in the northeastern Chinese city. — AP

NANJING: Philipp Kortum, chief financial officer of TUV Rheinland, a renowned German testing and certification services provider, is astounded by the swift completion of the second phase of its laboratory in Taicang, a county-level city in East China’s Jiangsu province.

Completed six months ahead of schedule, the Yangtze River Delta operation hub in Taicang, now TUV Rheinland’s largest lab, encompassed a wide array of businesses, from photovoltaics and new energy vehicles to textiles.Neighbouring Shanghai, Taicang, spanning 800 sq km, is known as the “hometown of German enterprises” in China, with over 530 German enterprises flocking here.