The new consul of China in Barcelona, ??Hu Aimin, is confident that the Chery automotive investment will finally reach Catalonia. The diplomat – in a meeting with the press – explained yesterday that the process “is not fast” and takes time.
Aimin recalled that the Minister of Business of the Generalitat, Roger Torrent, already had a meeting with Chery in China. In recent years, all the attempts that have been made for a Chinese car manufacturer to set up in Catalonia have failed. It happened in 2010, when it was tried to come from Chery itself; in 2011 with Brilliance; in 2017 with Thunder Power, and last year with Great Wall Motors (GWM).
The possible pairing of cars from the Chinese brand comes just as the European Union threatens to raise tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to protect the mainland’s industry following an investigation it has launched. “Cooperation with China has many benefits”, said the consul. The EU’s measure “does not correspond to the interests of anywhere”, and he pledged to reduce the discrepancies through dialogue, since he considers China to be a reliable and indispensable partner for the EU to solve the problems facing Europe .
The diplomat announced a business meeting for January in Barcelona. The consul highlighted that “the Chinese company Huayi Compresor acquired the local company Cubigel” and the collaboration of Chinese companies with Idiada. “Air China has recovered direct flights from Beijing to Barcelona and Shenzhen Airlines has launched new direct flights from Shenzhen to Barcelona”, he explained. There are currently five direct flights every week connecting China and Catalonia, although the consul hopes there will be more next year. “From January to October this year, more than 70,000 Chinese tourists visited Barcelona and the number of Chinese students in Catalonia reached almost 4,000,” he added.
Eliminating the requirement to have a visa to be able to visit China for a maximum of 15 days for business or tourism can boost economic activity. Spain is one of the six countries to which the visa has been removed a few days ago. However, a visa is still required for Chinese visitors arriving in Spain.
The consul also regretted that rating agency Moody’s Investors Service recently downgraded the outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating.
