Back in July 2013, when China's President Xi Jinping met with the president of Switzerland, Ueli Maurer, in Beijing, Xi explained that the natural conditions of China's Guizhou province are similar to those of Switzerland and he hoped the two could cooperate in ecological and economic development, and now it seems that Switzerland and colorful Guizhou are on a cooperative journey.
Maurer took part in the Eco-Forum Global Annual Conference, in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou's capital, in 2013, and the following year, Hannes German, president of the Council of States of Switzerland's Federal Assembly, joined the conference.
Switzerland has a reputation for being the greenest country in the world, with a green, circular, low-carbon economy, and although it's far from Guizhou, it has a connection with the mountainous province, with similarities in geology, nature, folk culture, and environment. And EFG forum and Sino-Swiss dialogues have become a means of communication not just between Guizhou and the Swiss but between China's interior and developed countries in Europe.
When a Sino-Swiss free trade agreement took effect on July 1, 2014, it brought cooperation opportunities for Switzerland and Guizhou, which has its eyes set on becoming a "Switzerland of the East", using Swiss experience and expertise in green industry and urban construction in mountainous areas.
Guizhou has sent a large number of delegates to Switzerland and has held business and tourism promotions and conferences there, and the Swiss government says that they consider cooperation with Guizhou in trade, environment protection, culture, tourism, and government very important and they have signed strategic agreements on trade and economic cooperation.
And, Guiyang's Free Trade zone and Gui'an Sino-Swiss industrial zone, and industrial demonstration zone, show bright prospects for cooperation with Switzerland and more Swiss enterprises are expected to invest in Guizhou, while, Guizhou will use its Sino-Swiss dialogues to develop a Chinese and Swiss clean energy technology center and an environmental protection industrial base.
