File photo: VCG

 Companies from China and Germany will continue to nurture smooth cooperative relations in driving their sustainable development. As the world is undergoing changes that are causing uncertainties, firms will play a vital role in helping to address the imbalance between economic growth and environment protection, experts and officials said Thursday.

The Chinese government has put much focus on sustainable development and has speeded up efforts to implement related plans rolled out by the UN.

In 2015, the UN launched an agenda for sustainable development for the next 15 years, aiming at ending poverty in all its forms. It enshrined 17 sustainable development goals such as facilitating access to clean energy and countering climate change.

Advancing the transformation of energy is necessary and is one of the ways to ensure sustainable development, Zhao Qingbo, general manager assistant of State Grid Corp of China, told a forum in Beijing.

During recent years, State Grid has stepped up efforts to drive the construction of a low-carbon and efficient energy system, and give full play to the role of the power grid in the energy system, Zhao said.

For instance, the company has built a total of 19 extra-high voltage projects, with total transmitting length of 36,000 kilometers, and the cumulative power generation hits more than 1.3 trillion kilowatts-hour, according to Zhao.

Thanks to the widespread concept of sustainable development, an increasing number of Chinese firms have accelerated industry upgrades to achieve high-quality growth, experts said, noting that Germany is a pioneer of sustainable development and has a wealth of experience it can share with China.

Since the launch of the national sustainable development strategy in 2002, Germany has regularly published progress reports on sustainable development with specific targets and measures. German companies have also actively implemented green growth plans.

Germany has long supported and encouraged private firms to make contributions to sustainable development, Johannes Regenbrecht, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy in China, told the forum.

China and Germany have established fruitful cooperation in economic industries such as automotive, finance, electronics and retail, in recent years, which laid a solid foundation for companies from both countries to further integrate their sustainable development strategies, Zhu Hongren, director-general of China Entrepreneur Association, told the same forum.

As partners of sustainable development, Chinese and German enterprises are expected to establish a dialogue mechanism, which will facilitate  cooperation between firms from both countries to discuss new changes, trends and solutions regarding sustainable development, Zhu said.