German Centre settles in Taicang

Geman Centre has chosen Taicang city in Jiangsu province as its third settlement in China, after Beijing and Shanghai, the center revealed on Tuesday.

The 8,500 square meter center was created with an investment of $120 million from Bayerische Landesbank. It is expected to open by the end of this year.

The center will provide medium-sized German enterprises with offices and supporting services, and help them to expand in China.

German Centre is an investment promotion platform designed to help German companies enter the international market. It serves its customers with all-round services including market consulting, law services, translation, office rental and financial services.

German Centre is a strong platform for Sino-German cooperation, and will promote Industry 4.0 (the convergence of information and automation to produce smart manufacturing) and drive Taicang's economic growth, says Zhu Wanli, deputy mayor of Taicang city.

"The German Centre just seems like an office area, but actually it is a platform to promote business exchanges and cooperation. For example, German Centre Shanghai recently invited a famous German consultancy to discuss Industry 4.0 with companies in the center and analyzed the challenges of the digital industry in the future. This new center here will also organize such activities and provide financial services for manufacturing enterprises in Taicang," said Xia Jianan, CEO of German Centre Shanghai.

Taicang is hailed as "the hometown of German enterprise in China".

Since the first German enterprise Kern-Liebers (Taicang) Co was launched in Taicang in 1993, the city has attracted more than 220 German companies with total investment nearing $2 billion and total output value close to $30 billion.

Edited by Andrew Ancheta