Brussels, 30/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 30 September, European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen said he hoped that the technical work aiming to define the vectors for China's investment to contribute to the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) would be finalised by the end of 2015.
“China made a commitment in principle [as regards its contribution to the EFSI] and we have set up a working group that will enable us, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank (EIB) (EIB), to find appropriate investment vectors that are able to encourage China to invest in Europe. This work should be finalised by the end of the year”, Katainen said, after a Commission meeting.
Katainen has just come back from Beijing, where on 28 September he was co-chairing an economic and trade dialogue with China's Vice-Premier Ma Kai. During the dialogue, China confirmed its intention to contribute to the Investment Plan for Europe.
“China can play an important role in the Investment Plan for Europe. Chinese investment flows into Europe are increasing fast”, Katainen said on Wednesday. “But we must find common points for making an agreement by the end of the year. A large number of member states have begun to set up investment platforms enabling similar projects to be grouped together through the EFSI. China is particularly interested in the European infrastructure project, and also in financing SMEs”, he said.
As regards the amount of the Chinese investment, Katainen said that his “Chinese counterparts preferred not to mention a figure”. “The amounts of Chinese investment depend above all on the number of good projects that exist. China is already investing in Europe. Last year it invested €18 billion. That's already a good figure, but we need to make it grow”, he added.
On Monday, a source close to Katainen said that the Chinese contribution would be “in the upper range” of the contributions that some member states have announced (that of the UK being the biggest at around €8.5 billion).
On Wednesday, Katainen said he would prefer “China to invest generally rather than project by project”. “China's contribution could be quite large. It is extremely interested in Europe. It wants to diversify its assets and its risks, and Europe seems quite attractive to it - but we need to do this technical work [to define the best vectors for investment]”, he said. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)