Annual Summit China and Europe/Spain

Published: 3 May 2016

Deloitte has gathered in Madrid the Firm’s most acknowledged experts in serving Chinese companies in the Europe, Middle East and Africa Regions (EMEA region) in a meeting. The meeting was conducted by Gabor Gion, managing partner of Deloitte EMEA Chinese Services Group (CSG) which is a Deloitte’s global organization focus on advising Chinese companies as Chinese companies expanding their global presence. Deloitte’s Global CSG has established 60 dedicated CSG teams of professionals who has culture understanding and language capabilities, covering 130 countries.

During the CSG EMEA meeting, a client summit was held attracted more than 120 participants including economists and representatives from local government and business communities, and entrepreneurs such as CEOs of Huawei in Spain, Mr. Tony Jin Yong; Mapfre International, Mr. Javier Fernandez-Cid; Atlantic Copper, Mr. Javier Targhetta; Alsa, Mr. Jorge Cosmen and Deputy General Manager of Europe at UnionPay International Co, Ms. Linghan Wang. The Summit was an effective platform for Deloitte to create values for businesses through experience sharing, and introduce to them a suite of the firm's China outbound services backed by a cross border network and cross-functional professionals. The attendees have gained better understanding of the macroeconomic situation which affects China, Europe and Spain as well as the internationalization experiences shared by Chinese and Spanish entrepreneurs.

During the opening, Fernando Ruiz, President of Deloitte Spain, recalled the deep connections between the China and Spain economies – which have been able to find many meeting points in spite of their countries’ cultural differences.

George Warnock, Deloitte Country Services Groups Global Leader, emphasized having a deep understanding of culture and tradition makes doing business immensely easier.

Sitao Xu, Chief Economist of Deloitte China, highlighted the potential of the Chinese economy and pointed out that the Chinese government has a broad range of mechanisms and tools to keep boosting its economy.

Fernando Fernández Méndez de Andez, Chair of Economics at IE Business School, reviewed the main upcoming challenges for China, Europe and Spain. In his concluding remarks, he suggested that Spain’s competitiveness is backed by its commitment to economic reform and investment in human talent and capability management.

Rosa Yang, Chairman of Deloitte Global Chinese Services Group, moderated a panel themed “Open horizons and opportunities to explore” to discuss how to be successful in a foreign market. The key take-away include: build trust, customer centric, focus on strength, build relationship with local partners, invest together with local partners into the value chain, comply with local regulations and introduce innovative business model to new market.

Fernando Ruiz, President of Deloitte Spain, facilitated the discussion with Javier Vega de Seoane, Chairman of Círculo de Empresarios, about the challenges and opportunities for Spain in attracting foreign investment. Vega de Seoane remarked that Spain is a favourable investment destination for foreign investors, especially from China, due to its privileged geographic position as the gateway to Latin America. As for the most attractive sectors to foreign investors, the Chairman of Círculo de Empresarios gave his vote to the following industries – real estate, energy (especially renewable energy), agro alimentary, capital equipment and tourism.

Huang Yazhong, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Spain, provided his closing remarks for the event. Yazhong, who was introduced by Fernando Baldellou, Deloitte Spain CSG leader and financial advisory partner, noted the relevance of these meetings as a way of contributing to the cooperation of Chinese and Spanish companies and pave way for future business partnership.