The China-France Youth Leaders Roundtable was held in Suzhou HSR New Town on February 26, when 16 French young entrepreneurs discussed business development and cooperation ideas with their Suzhou counterparts.
Shen Dan, vice chairperson of the Suzhou Youth Federation, said that Suzhou enjoys a profound relationship with France and trade cooperation and friendly exchanges have been active in recent years.
In 2018, Suzhou’s foreign trade with France reached $3.75 billion, an increase of 8.6 percent year-on-year. Suzhou is home to about 121 French-funded enterprises, among which well-known companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Danone, Schneider Electric and L'Oreal have achieved sound development. Nearly a thousand French people now work, study and live in Suzhou.
At the meeting, young entrepreneurs of two countries had in-depth exchanges and discussions over a broad range of issues, with a focus on the cooperation in “Belt and Road” projects, internationalization of SMEs on a global scale, human resources services, application of industrial Internet, and the logistics sector empowered by self-driving vehicles.
