SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A business matchmaking event has gathered local government officials and business representatives from China and Switzerland to seek cooperation opportunities in biomedicine and artificial intelligence (AI).
At the conference on Wednesday, Christoph Scharrer, head of the Economic Development Agency of the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, highlighted the potential for cooperation with the central Chinese province of Hunan.
"We see significant opportunities for industrial cooperation between our two regions," Scharrer said, pointing to Schaffhausen's precision-oriented industries, life science sector, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and sustainability, and Hunan's well-developed and well-rounded industrial ecosystem.
Hunan and Schaffhausen established friendly sister-province/state relations in 2018 and have since maintained exchanges in trade and investment, science and technology, healthcare, education and other fields, said Liu Suyue, deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce.
Liu noted that biomedicine and AI are two of Hunan's fastest-growing industries with the greatest potential for bilateral cooperation.
According to Liu, by the end of 2025, Hunan had more than 80,000 biomedicine companies, with the industry's total output exceeding 350 billion yuan (about 52.1 billion U.S. dollars). Hunan's AI industry had a total value of 85 billion yuan (about 12.7 billion dollars) and more than 400 key enterprises.
Inviting international businesses, Liu outlined Hunan's advantages in attracting international businesses through five "Cs": cost, consumer base, cluster, college and convenience, referring to the province's manufacturing cost, market potential, industrial clusters, talent resources and business services.
Representatives from companies in both Hunan and Switzerland discussed business opportunities and prospects for future cooperation.
Zoomlion, a Chinese construction machinery manufacturer headquartered in Changsha, Hunan, is now seeking to expand its business in Switzerland, especially in high-end machinery manufacturing, AI and robotics, said Abdukeyyum Abduwaki, deputy general manager of Zoomlion Global.
The company has seven subsidiaries, five factories and 36 service outlets in Europe, Abduwaki said.
Dominic Oertly, founder and CEO of Zurich-based Businessincub (Swiss BIC), said his business platform connects Swiss and European companies with partners in China, helping them access the Chinese market while supporting Chinese companies seeking to expand into Switzerland and the wider European market.
"Switzerland and China, we have such strong ties already. So we really need to take advantage of it," Oertly said, stressing the need to make more European companies aware of the big opportunities in China.
Christian Jost, co-founder of the Swiss biotech company Athebio AG, said China has long demonstrated strong capabilities in carrying out established chemical and biochemical processes, and has also shown growing strength in innovation and developing new ideas in recent years.
Citing China's big domestic market and innovative power, Jost said, "China is certainly a huge global player that one should not miss."
The conference, organized by the Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce, has gathered government officials and representatives from more than 20 Swiss research institutions, universities and enterprises to explore cooperation opportunities with Chinese counterparts.
