‘The partnership between Switzerland and China is pioneering’
In an exclusive interview with CGTN, Juerg Burri, the Swiss ambassador to China, spoke about the mutually beneficial cooperation between both countries.
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00:00 So how would you assess the relationship between China and Switzerland and areas
00:05 of mutual cooperation and partnerships? The first thing I would like to mention
00:09 is that Sino-Swiss relations really date way back and they're based on a sort of
00:20 a trust in the sense that Switzerland was one of the first Western countries
00:26 to establish diplomatic relations with China. But then also the first joint
00:32 venture with a Western company was with a Swiss company or the first free trade
00:37 agreement with a Western European country was with Switzerland. And all
00:41 that shows that the partnership between Switzerland and China is really something
00:46 which is a pioneering partnership. And I think with the free trade agreement that
00:52 we have made to enter into force and which was very beneficial to both sides
00:58 we have led a ground to now develop relations even further. We have more than
01:08 700 Swiss companies here in China. They're very innovative companies and
01:13 they benefit a lot from the very qualified and very motivated Chinese
01:19 workforce and they give a lot in bringing in Swiss innovations into the
01:24 Chinese manufacturing, the Chinese pharmaceutics and so on. And this is
01:31 really a success story where you can see that the both economies correlate and
01:36 help each other. And in other fields like finance or foreign affairs we have a
01:44 lively dialogue and I think it's a good moment to make a plan for the future.
01:52 What areas hold further potential do you think especially in the economic
01:57 cooperation between the two sides? We know that this year marks 10th
02:01 anniversary of the free trade agreement. What is your expectation of the further
02:06 progress? First it's the free trade agreement which has been setting the
02:15 framework for the past 10 years. And Switzerland is a very open country
02:20 economy-wise. So the proof is that from the 1st of January this year there are
02:27 no more duties on industrial imports coming into Switzerland. So we are really
02:32 opening our country to the world. And I believe that China also wants to go this
02:37 way and so we can exchange experiences. Second the free trade agreement is very
02:44 useful to both economies. We have been growing our trade by more than 70% since
02:50 we have it. But it's not fully used yet. Not everybody, not all the companies know
02:56 it yet. So we can still make the free trade agreement an agreement which is
03:00 more accessible to all the countries and more beneficial to all of us. And the
03:06 third is that we can develop paths on what in a future version of the free
03:13 trade agreement should be the points of concerns, the points to be addressed. And
03:20 that I think is the roadmap for these talks. And after the talks we will see
03:27 exactly where we stand.