Consul General of Sweden in ShanghaiMarie-Claire Swärd Capra

Editor's Note:

The Fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10 as scheduled. Despite the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, global traders plan to gather at the annual event online and offline to showcase their products and services in fields such as healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI) and carbon neutrality, looking to boost their performance in the Chinese market.

The Global Times (GT) interviewed 15 foreign diplomats in Beijing and Shanghai about their engagement and expectations for this year's CIIE. Here is：

Marie-Claire Swärd Capra
Consul General of Sweden in Shanghai

GT: How does Sweden plan to engage in the CIIE despite facing challenges from COVID-19? 

Marie-Claire Swärd Capra: The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is a huge conference and very important for Swedish companies. There is great market potential for Swedish companies in China. So Sweden's participation in the CIIE is very consistent. We have participated since the beginning.

But now due to COVID, like last year, we will not have any overseas delegations coming in. But nevertheless, there will be good participation from Swedish companies who are here in China. There are slightly more companies participating this year than last year. Around 20 Swedish companies will be at the CIIE. 

GT: What are your expectations for the upcoming event?

Marie-Claire Swärd Capra: Sweden-China trade is very balanced. Swedish exports to China actually went up quite a bit last year. We are very happy about that. And also Swedish imports from China were also keeping pace, even though 2020 was a generally difficult year.

China is still holding the 5th and 6th place for import and export goods for Sweden. The services trade has gone down because of COVID. We're also seeing a lot of incoming Chinese foreign direct investment into Sweden. We are very happy about that. There are also ongoing Swedish investments into China. This is the general situation and scene for us when we come to the CIIE. We see great potential. We are also seeing that there is quite some focus at this year's CIIE on sustainability. One Swedish company is participating actively in preparing this together with the CIIE bureau. This is of course very important for Sweden, for our companies. 

We believe that we have knowledge and a competitive edge when it comes to sustainability issues. Swedish companies have potential to contribute to both productivity and consumption and also have innovative products and services in the Chinese market in the time ahead, not least when it comes to environmental and climate issues.